Traitor among friends?
by ZoraofWater
Summary: What first ends up meeting a potential ally progresses as a dangerous enemy. Things take an unexpected turn for the worse...Is Edogawa Conan who he really is? Or will the words and presence of the impossible man prove that wrong? *rated T just in case*
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, people of ! Zora here with her first ever fan fiction of Detective Conan! XD I've had this idea for quite some time and finally made it a reality. Hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan…otherwise all the mysteries would be easily solved (not to mention pathetically made) and the Black Organization would take over the world! MUAHAHAHAHHA…..*cough***

* * *

"Conan-kun, breakfast is ready!"

"Hai…" The small boy replied as he opened the door, rubbing his tired eyes as he wandered over to the small table. As he sat down, he noticed a certain detective was gone. "Where's Ojii-san?"

"Oh, Otou-san got a request and had to leave early." Ran said as she came back, putting the breakfast on the table. She sat down and looked at Conan. "So, Conan-kun, do you remember what we're going to do today?"

"Un!" He said in a childish voice. "We're going to Tropical Land with Heiji-niichan and Kazuha-neechan, right?"

"That's right!" Ran smiled as they ate. "They'll be here soon so you better hurry up and get dressed after you eat, Conan-kun."

"Haiii!" Conan tried to grin as big as he could while he ate. While Ran wasn't looking, he half heartedly laughs to himself. ~ That bastard…Tropical Land is the LAST place I want to go to in this body…~ He finished up and walked back to Kogoro's room to change.

Edogawa Conan…he is far from your ordinary primary school boy. He's actually a 16 year old high schooler…but it's probably hard to believe at this moment. It all started when…well…He'll explain it himself soon enough.

"Yo, Kudou!"

Conan could feel someone patting his small head and twitched before turning around and glaring at the boy who said his name…his REAL name.

"Oi, Hattori! How many times do I have to say not to use my real name?" He snapped, but not loud enough for Ran and Kazuha (who would be with her since Heiji's here) to hear.

"Sorry, sorry." said the Osaka teenager as he rubbed the back of his head. "So, you excited about going to Tropical Land?"

"Barou…" the small boy replied as he put on his watch and belt, both items invented by Professor Agasa. "I already explained my situation when you figured my identity out…in case you forgotten…" He motioned Heiji that he was going to whisper something in his ear so he did just that. Conan cupped his hands and got close, then yelled "THE LAST TIME I WAS THERE, THOSE BASTARDS SHRANK ME!"

"Kuso!" Heiji cursed as he backed away, rubbing his ear. "Ahou! Are you trying to tell the world who you are?" He quickly covered his mouth while his eyes were widen in shock. Turning around and looking out of the door, he saw Kazuha and Ran talking to each other. Heiji sighed in relief, seeing as how they didn't notice his little identity-revealing outburst.

"So…? Did you really forget?" The small boy suddenly said in an annoyed tone as he walked out of the room.

"Ehhh….sort of…" Heiji said, scratching his cheek. "It's been over a year now, you know…"

"Yeah…I know…"

"Oyyyy! What are you two doing? We'll leave without you!" Kazuha called out to the two boys. They quickly rushed over to the girls. As soon as Heiji walked up near Kazuha, she lashed out her hand and pulled his ear.

"Itai, itai, itai!" He cried as he was released by her grasp, rubbing his ear yet again. "First I get yelled at…then this crazy ahou tries to tear off my ear…" He noticed that Kazuha overheard his muttering and backed away in fear as she threatens him with a twitch of her eye.

"At any rate, we should go." Ran quickly said, sweatdropping as the two Osaka pair glared at each other. The last thing the group needs is a pair of friend fighting.

After a few minutes, the group arrived to Tropical Land. The amusement park was full of people of all ages, of course, and excitement filled the air.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's goooo!" Kazuha shouted as she punched upward.

"Ahh…if it's ok with you and Nee-chan, we'll just split up." Heiji said, raising a hand slightly and swaetdropping.

"Ehh? Nande?"

"She's right, Hattori-kun. Why would you want to split up before we started to do anything?" Ran questioned in confusion, tilting her head to the side.

He replied with a rather weak attempt of a laugh as he tried to think of an excuse. "W-well…C-Conan-kun here wants to show me some really scary rides! You guys don't wanna start out with something to suddenly jump at you, ne?" Conan merely glared at him, his eye twitching in annoyance.

"I guess…" Kazuha said, crossing her arms. It WAS true that both her and Ran were scared of ghosts and superstitions…even though both of them have their impressive martial art skills. Soon, everything fell silent.

"How about this: we'll meet back up at 1:00." Ran suddenly said. "That way, we'll go on the rides we want alone and think of where to go together!"

"Sounds good! Right, Conan?" Heiji quickly replied as he once again pat the young detective's head.

"Haii! Heiji-niichan and I are going to have loads of fun!" Conan cheered in the most childish voice he could do at that moment, using his arms to express his 'excitement'.

"All right! Let's meet up in front of the Castle right here in Dream and Fairytale Land!" Ran said as she clasped her hands together, smiling as she saw Conan and Heiji looking more like brothers than friends. "Ja ne! Let's go, Kazuha-chan!"

"Heiji, don't you forget, you ahou!" Kazuha shouted to him as she and ran left the two boys alone. Heiji grumbled as he walked over to a table. Conan could faintly make out the words 'ahou' and 'why me'.

_~Your fault for dragging us into this…~_ He thought, half laughing to himself as they sat down.

"So, Kudou, remind me what happened." Heiji finally said, out of his little 'immature' stage and into his 'tell me or I'll die of boredom' stage.

"Again, how many times do I have to say about my name, Hattori…?" Conan grumbled as he put his elbow on the table and used it to support his head. "Fine, I'll tell you again, if you really don't remember…but I blame you if they overhear us…"

"Hai, hai." He said with a rather large grin.

* * *

It was suppose to be a normal day at the amusement park, a gift for his friend for winning the tournament. However, things went wrong and ended up as another murder case. With that solved, the two childhood teens walk their way towards Tropical Land's exit, one of them was crying her eyes out.

"Hey come on, don't cry, Ran…" The other teen said bluntly.

"How can you be so calm after that…?" Ran replied, wiping her tears as she glared at the boy…at Kudou Shinichi.

"Oh, I've been around lots of crime scenes so I see a lot of bodies in pieces…" Shinichi said, rubbing the back of his head and smiling sheepishly. ~To my dismay…cases just keep popping out where ever I go…~

"OH MY GOD!" she cried, crying even more than she was before.

"H-hey, just forget about it, okay?" He said, trying to calm her down. "I mean…this kind of thing happens a lot…(for me…)"

"IT DOES NOT!" She shouted at the boy. If she was truly mad, she would have used her karate skills won the tournament on him.

They continued to bicker at each other until Shinichi spot one of the 'suspicious' guys in black from the case just a few minutes ago rushing off somewhere. Narrowing his eyes, he started to give chase.

"Sorry, Ran! Go on ahead of me!" He shouted back to the girl. "I'll catch up with you right away!" Waving off to her quickly, he ran as fast as he was able to.

"W-wait! Shinichi!" she cried as she tried to run after him. Suddenly, her shoelaces snapped at the first step, causing her to stumble and stop to watch him go farther and farther away.

_**Why…**_

_**Why do I have this feeling…**_

_**A feeling…that I wouldn't see Shinichi again…**_

Shinichi managed to catch up with the guy and hid himself behind the building, watching him talking to some sort of business man…nah. He looked like some big shot of a company than a businessman.

"H-Here! No problem, right?" he suddenly shout as the jittery bald company director (he assumed) opened up the case, revealing it was filled with cash.

_~W-whoa…there's gotta be at least 100 million yen in there_…~ Shinichi thought.

"Right. The deal is completed!" the black man replied, taking the case.

"Now, hurry! Give me the film!" the man pleaded.

"All right, here you go!" He said, tossing a small film case to him. "Film of your company's gun smuggling…you shouldn't be so naughty!" The man panic and desperately tried to catch the film. Once he did, he glared back.

"This is the only copy, correct?" He hissed, a hint of distrust covering his voice.

"Of course!" The man in black replied with a smirk.

_~Oi, oi…is this for real?~_ Shinichi thought as he took out a camera from his pocket and tried to take pictures of the scene that unfolded in front of him with the director and the man with black.

"**Your detective game…"**

His eyes shrank at the dark, cold voice that loomed from behind him and he quickly turned around.

"**IS OVER!"**

Suddenly, Shinichi was hit with a metal pipe and stumbled forward, scaring off the director and alerting the man in black as he crashed onto the grass.

"A-Aniki!" He replied as he saw the boy.

"Just our luck, having this kid following us around…" the assailant said as the other man ran up to him.

"Isn't he that detective boy? We should take care of him!" He quickly said, pulling out the gun from his breast pocket.

"No! No guns!" The other one hissed in response to his partner's action. "This place is still crawling with cops from that case earlier!" Shinichi managed to glance up, still unable to move or cry out for help. He caught sight of his attacker. Unlike his partner, he had noticeably long silver hair and a green turtleneck. The long haired man in black dug into his pocket, pulling out a metallic case and smirked down at Shinichi.

"We'll use this…our organization's latest poison."

Opening the case, there were 12 small red and white capsules along with a cylinder object inside. "It's untraceable, so it won't show up in the autopsies." He said as he took a capsule out. Grabbing the young high school detective by his hair, he raised him up and forced the pill into his half-opened mouth. "It hasn't been tested on humans…so he'll be our little guinea pig."

Then, opening the other object in the case, he poured water in his mouth to force him to swallow the pill. He released his grasp from his hair and stood up. With a tip of his black hat and a glare paired with his sinister smirk, his final words to Shinici were:

"**So long, Meitantei." **

With that said and done, the two men ran off from Shinichi as a horrible pain overcame his body.

_**M-My body's burning up…**_

He gripped a turf of grass as his body convulsed.

_**It like my bones are melting…**_

He gasped silently as the pain grew. It felt like his chest could either burst or crush his organs any second.

_**I can't hold it…**_

His vision fade as the pain triumph over, the last thing he remembered was his own agonizing scream.

* * *

"…Then I was awoken by the voices of policemen…and that's how I'm in this stupid kid's body…" Conan concluded, his eyes closed the entire time he told the story. His ear twitched at a small sound and opened his eyes as he glared at the now snickering Heiji. "Oi! It's not funny!"

Heiji suddenly bursted out laughing, holding his chest in pain as he laughed. "It's hilarious! I mean, you're a kid because you got stupidly caught!" Conan could merely glare daggers through Heiji as he started to calm down. "Well, I'm still glad I wasn't as unfortunate as you, Kudou!" Heiji chuckled, smirking.

"Heh heh…Careful. You might as well jinx yourself, Hattori…" he said, his eye twitching in anger.

"Well at least I don't have cases looming over me at every waking moment."

"Teme…."

"Attention, everyone." The speakers around the park said, causing them to look up and listen. "Due to unforeseen conditions, Tropical Land is now closed. We are sorry for the inconvenience…I repeat, due to-"

"That's strange…" Heiji muttered, narrowing his eyes as they listen to the announcements before he looked at his watch. "It's only just past noon…"

"Maybe…another murder?" Conan said as he thought of the possible scenarios that could cause this. After a few seconds, he shook his head. _~Impossible. They wouldn't close the entire park.~_

"Heiji!"

"Conan-kun!"

They looked up at the sound of their names being called, seeing Ran and Kazuha rushing over to them. "Oi, what's wrong with you two?" Heiji said, pointing at the two girls who were completely pale. Catching her breath, Ran stood up straight.

"S-someone placed a bomb in the park." She finally managed to say.

"N-NANI?" The two boys were in shock. "W-we have to do something!" Heiji started to run over to where the girls just ran from, but Kazuha quickly grabbed his arm. "Oi! Ahou! Let me go!"

"They got it under control, Heiji!" She shouted as she stood up. "There was already a police officer there. He already got rid of it!"

"T-then why-"

"They're worried that the culprit put even more bombs in the park." Ran explained.

"…"

"Demo…"

"It's dangerous, Conan-kun." Ran said as she knelt down to the young boy. Smiling, she put her hands on his shoulders. "Let the police handle it…all right?"

"H-hai…" The boy stared at the ground, submitting to the older girl instead of running off like they originally were going to do. ~Now that I think about it…how am I suppose to figure out if there IS another bomb.~ He laughed to himself silently.

"Well, let's go get something to eat then!" Ran said, standing up and putting her hands on her hips. "There's a nearby restaurant I wanted to show the two of you!"

"Well, let's go!" Kazuha said. The two girls were back to normal, but Heiji and Conan were still a bit uneasy of leaving the park before investigating of said bomb threat. That idea was quickly dismissed due to their girfr – err….friends' threatening glares at the two boys and they had no choice but to sigh in defeat.

With that, the group of four walked out of the park and arrived at the restaurant Ran mentioned about. Inside, it looks like the inside of someone's own house, with the tamata mats and everything. A section from the left and right side were raised a bit so customers can place their shoes underneath. A bit further in and you can see doors that lead to bigger rooms for a large group of customers or reserved rooms.

"Sugei!" Heiji and Kazuha said as they walked inside.

"Welcome." The waitress nearby said as she bowed. Her uniform was nothing more than a simple light blue kimono and her hair bounded up. "Group of four? This way, please."

She took three menu booklets with her and walked across the stony aisle with Conan and the others following her. Soon, she stopped next to a small and low table to their right and motioned them to sit down. They all took off their shoes and pushed them underneath the small space under the raised wooden floor in front of them and sat down on the small cushions. The waitress then passed out the menus to the three teenagers and bowed slightly before leaving them to choose their meals.

"Here, Conan-kun." Ran said as she put the menu between them. "Pick out whatever you want to eat."

"Haii!"

_**KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!**_

The group froze at the loud scream. Quickly getting out of their seats, Heiji and Conan rushed over to the source of the scream, despite the girls' outcries towards them. Forcing their way in the 'Employees Only' door, they stood there, completely horrified as they saw a man on the ground. His eyes were widen in complete shock, his mouth opened widely, and his body completely not moving.

"S-Someone! Call the hospital!" A girl's voice rang out, causing Heiji and Conan to look up. There were four other people in the room with them. One of the girls was already kneeling next to the man on the ground before slowly standing up.

"Too late…his entire body's already cold…" She muttered, tilting her hat down to hide her eyes. "In other words…In other words, he's dead."

"N-no way…" One of the other girls staggered backwards, using the table nearby to support her from fainting to the ground. Shaking her head from the shock, she quickly pulled out her cellphone. "I-in any case, I'll call the police then!"

The girl in the hat nodded to other as she turned to the two detectives that forced their entry into the room. "You guys! Make sure no one comes in or out of this room!" She stated.

"We weren't planning on doing that." Heiji said, his hands in his jacket's pocket as he stared down the four people in front of him.

"W-what's the big idea, Saika-san?" The male of the group said as he took a step forward. "Y-you couldn't possibly think-"

"I do." She calmly said as she turned to the speaker. "This was a murder, of course…and the only ones who could have done it is…"

_**The four of us in this room.**_

* * *

**Well, there goes the first Chapter! Hope I made it decent enough for you guys _; At any rate, I'll have chapter 2 up sometime this week (assuming homework doesn't maul me while I create it...)**

**On another note...here's the translations for the Japanese words.**

**Hai/Un - Yes**

**Ojii-san - Uncle/formal way of talking with an older man**

**Otou-san - Father**

**- kun - Suffix used for kids or friends. Mostly used for boys**

**Nee-chan/Nii-chan - Sister/Brother or formal way for kids to call people older than they are (for teenagers, atleast)**

**Oi - Hey**

**Barou/Ahou - Idiot/fool/stupid/etc...'Ahou' is said by those who live in Osaka**

**Kuso - Damn**

**Itai - Ow/Ouch**

**Nande - Why**

**Ne - Right (usually at the end of a question)?**

**Ja ne - See you later (or just Later)**

**Aniki - Partner**

**Meitantei - Detective**

**Teme - Bastard**

**Nani - What**

**Demo - But**

**Sugei - Awesome**

**- San - Suffix when saying someone's name (formal and mostly used for adults)**


	2. Chapter 2

**FFFFFFFFFF Sorry guys DX I intended on putting this up on the same week I put up the first chappy, but school killed me! (so did my dad, who deleted 2 ½ pages of my fanfic by not saving it ;A; ) But hey, it's up! Hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan :U**

* * *

"The victim was Kyle Raine, a 43-year-old American." Takagi said to Heiji, holding his police notebook open as he read through the details to him. "He was a renowned master chef in America and retired here in Japan while at the same time attempting to make his own son a great chef. We don't know the exact cause of death, but he was killed roughly around 1 to 2 hours ago. Although Satou-san and I were already here, it'll be at least an hour at the most before the forensics come."

"Wait, what do you mean you can't find the EXACT cause of death?" Conan chirped in, looking up at the officer with his big, round, blue eyes.

"Ahh…Well..." Takagi replied with a sheepish laugh as he shut his notebook. He motioned the two to follow him to the body and kneeled down, pointing at his mouth. "You can smell almond coming from his mouth so it's probably cyanide…but…" His finger moved down lower. "There are marks here that show he was strangled, not to the point of death, at least. After looking at the body closer…" His hand reached over to the victim's coat, lifting up the left half. Heiji and Conan looked over and froze.

"He was shot as well…?" Heiji muttered as he put his hand on his chin. "Why would they go through all the trouble of this? The forensics would figure it out, wouldn't they?"

"That's IF the forensics can even come here…" Conan added as he narrowed his eyes. He blinked and took a closer look at the bullet wound. ~There's two little slits around the bullet wound…completely opposite of each other…~ he thought, frowning.

Heiji blinked and turned to Conan. "Oi, what do you mean, Ku-errr…Conan? Why wouldn't they be he-"

"NANI? You've got to be kidding me!"

The three males quickly froze at the loud and threatening voice as they turned behind them, seeing Satou shouting into her cell phone. Her face was tense, her eyes widen in what looks like a mixture of shock and anger. After taking a deep breath, she said "All right, I understand…Bye." She hung up her phone and cursed to herself, biting her thumb.

"A-ahh….S-Satou-san…? Did something happen?" Takagi said as he stood up and carefully walked his way to her. He already knew what happens when she's angry and didn't want to take the risk of making her more angry or injuring himself.

"Someone people back at the station were poisoned…" Satou said bluntly as the group stared in shock. "They received a package of sweets from someone who put Mouri-san's name on it, apparently. They all held very faint traces of cyanide." The female officer narrowed her eyes. "The dosages were small enough that it wouldn't kill them, but they're being taken to the hospital…Also, a majority of the forensic team was poisoned as well. The rest are off on another murder case that happened in Haido Hotel."

"Kuso…so this is why that bastard did all that…!" Heiji cursed, gripping the top of his head.

"So are you saying that we have to solve the case nerely blind?" Takagi exclaimed. Satou merely nodded and he let out a heavy sigh. "It would be nice to know the cause of death at the very least…"

"Just try figuring out yourselves…it'll take longer, but it shouldn't be impossible."

The group paused and looked up, seeing the girl who was the one to determine the victim died. Since Heiji and Conan were paying too much attention to the man's corpse and attempting to find out the cause of death, they really didn't pay attention to the suspects.

She was around Heiji's height, wearing a similar jacket and cap that he was wearing as if to hide herself rather than looking cool. She had long black hair with a blue-ish tint that was a little over shoulder length and it semed to cover a little of the right side of her face more than the left. Underneath her jacket, she wore a simple T-shirt with pictures of places in Japan along with Japanese text (Probably from America) and dark blue jeans with normal white/blue sneakers. However, the most noticeable feature of her was her stunning gray eyes with a blue ring around them.

"Oi….I would appreciate it if you didn't stare at me like that…"

Heiji blinked and realized what he was doing. He quickly stood up straight and sweatdropped. "Err, sorry about that!" He quickly said, rubbing the back of his head as Conan did the same. "So, do you mind telling us your name?"

She nodded. "My name's Matsuni Saika." She said, bowing slightly. "Nice to meet you." She felt a slight tug on her jacket and looked down, seeing Conan pulling on her jacket.

"Ne, you wouldn't happen to know their names too, do you?" Conan chirped in as he pointed to the other three people.

"Ah, I was asking her about that." Satou said. "Saika-san, if you would…?"

"Of course, keiji-san." Saika replied as she pointed to them. "The girl with the short brown hair and the matching jewelry is Sano Mizuki. She's 21-years-old and a childhood friend of mine. Her current occupation is being one of the leading designers in Kimoto no Hanabi, which is jewelry store if you haven't figured out from all the ones she's wearing. She's trying to advertise and get people's opinions about them."

"The man near that counter is David Raine, the son of the victim. He's an American and I believe to be around his 30s. He's also the owner and lead chef of this restaurant. The girl next to him is his fiancé Kurosawa Sasaki, Sano's cousin and David's fiancé. She's a grade school teacher, but she's also the co-head chef on the weekends here."

She turned back to Conan. "So? Is there anything else you need to know about them, bozu?"

"Well, what about you?" Conan said innocently as he put his hands behind his head. "You were talking about them pretty detailed, but all you said was your name, Saikah-neechan."

"Ahh...well..." She muttered. "I really didn't talk about myself because I didn't think there was any need…I don't go to school nor do I have an occupation at the moment. I lived in America ever since I was born and just recently moved here in Japan about 2 months ago."

"I knew something was bothering me!" Heiji suddenly said with a smile, pointing at Saika. "You seem to hesitating before you talk and you're saying the words a bit slower and spaced out. However, when you say the basic things like how you just introduced yourself, you seem to have no problem."

"I'm impressed that you figured that out." Saika said as she put her hands in her jacket. "Japanese was my first language, but I never really got the chance to use it back in America. I can understand others completely fine, but when it comes to speaking and writing, I still have a long way to go."

"Ne," Saika blinked as she looked down at Conan. The little meitantei put his hands behind his head as he looked up and tilted to the side. "You said you didn't have an occupation…yet. Does that mean you're looking for one?"

"Ah…Well, I signed up to be an assistant for English teachers here, but I haven't gotten a reply yet." Saika said, glancing off to the side. "Besides…" Her eyes then narrowed. "It's better than having the same job at the same place with a certain friend…"

"Saika-chaaan~~~, any luck?" Mizuki said as she made her way to the group from the direction Saika was glancing at.

"What are you talking about, Sano…?" She bluntly said as she turned her head away from the girl, an annoyed look painted on her face.

"Jeez…didn't I tell you not to use my last name?" Mizuki pout before poking her. "You know what I'm talking about…did you find out who killed him? Huh, did you?"

"I'm just a simple girl, not a detective." She growled, doing her best to ignore the persistence that is Mizuki's poking finger. "Why don't you ask these boys instead?"

"Eh?" Mizuki muttered as she looked up, seeing the officers along with Heiji and Conan. She blinked a few times as she kneeled down, looking at Conan, who backed away from her sudden closeness. Tilting her head, she continued to stare at him.

"KAWAII!"

Within seconds, she squealed in glee as she grabbed the young detective and hugged him as tight as possible. Conan attempted to squirm his way out of her grip with Heiji bursting out laughing.

"Ohhh, you're so cute! I could just take you home with me!" she happily said.

"Sano…he can't breathe…"

"Eh?" Mizuki looked down at the boy who she was currently suffocating and loosens her grip. Conan immediately grasps his chest, his eyes wide with shock as he takes giant gulps of precious air. "Oh, I'm so sorry!" She exclaimed as she put him down.

"I-it's ok, Mizuki-neesan!" He said as he let out a sigh. ~For a second, I thought I was going to die!~ he thought…though the rest of his thoughts were interrupted when he picks up someone's laughing dying down to snickers. "It's not funny!" He shouted as he turned around, glaring at Heiji.

"But it is!" He managed to say between chuckles. As soon as he started to calm down, he wiped away the tears of laughter from his eyes.

"Tch…barou…" Conan muttered under his breath as he crossed his arms and turned away, his arms crossed. He paused, sniffing the air. ~That smell…~

"Ugh…Sano, don't tell me you have one of those stupid smelling extracts with you." Saika said, moving her hand up to her face and pinching her nose as she shuffled herself away from her friend.

"Well, I do!" Mizuki said proudly as she pointed at herself, mainly her necklace. "It's a new line of products for Kimoto-san's store. They're aromatherapy jewelry! Isn't it awesome, Saika-chan?" Silence floated around the kitchen and she looked at her friend whose face was tensed up and her breathing became noticeably harsher than normal. "Ne, what's wrong?"

"I'll tell you what's wrong…" Saika grumbled, holding her head. "Did you forget that little story I told you about me and those damn aromatic things?"

Mizuki tilted her head as she put her index finger on her chin, thinking. "Well you did say something about almost fainting when you went in this one room full of dried herbs…"

"Exactly…it's the same for that god damn extract you're wear-" Saika froze, glaring at her friend as she started to sniff again. "...you have some in your earrings and bracelet, don't you?"

"K-Kowai…" Mizuki said, her eye twitching before she pout and crossed her arms. "Yeah, I do! I didn't think you could tell that easily!"

"It's hard not to notice…especially when I feel like I'm going to die…" Saika groaned. "Keiji-san, is it all right if I open the door over there?" she asked as she pointed to the door leading to the dining room where they came through.

"I suppose…" Satou said as she pinched her nose as well. "The smell is filling up the room anyways."

Saika nodded as she staggered her way to the door that leads to the dining room.

"Anyways…we should go confirm everyone's alibis." Takagi said as he pulled out a pen and his notebook.

Satou nodded in agreement as she followed suit. She turned to Heiji. "Hattori-kun, it is not my place to request this, but we're in such a tight position…could you investigate the kitchen a little more as we get more information from these people?"

"Yeah, just leave it to me and the kid!" Heiji replied as he kneeled down and pat the top of Conan's head, making a big grin while Conan merely glared at him.

"I leave it to you two, then!" Satou happily said as she and Takagi went over to where David and Sasaki were and started to talk to them. "Ano…may we ask a few questions?..."

Conan watched as the officers talked to the suspects and frowned.

"Ne, Kudou," Heiji said, interrupting the boy's thoughts and causing him to turn to his meitantei friend. "You've notice it too, haven't you?"

"Yeah…as soon as we entered the kitchen, I smelled it." He muttered as he crossed his arms. "It was filled with the smell of almond…just like smell from Mizuki's bracelet."

"So are you thinking that-"

"-the almond smell we smelled was Mizuki's extract? Probably…"

Heiji let out a groan as he scratched the back of his head. "The real problem is HOW did it get in his mouth without him knowing?"

"That's not the only problem…"

"Eh?" He turned around to find the source of the voice, only to have a giant pan hit his face and sending him back to the floor. Conan took a step back, shocked at what happened to the Meitantei of the West, before he even dared to look at the owner of the voice.

"HEIJI!"

Sure enough, it was Kazuha…a very angry Kazuha at that. She stomped over to where Heiji was on the floor and put her hands on her hips. "Ahou! Why did you lock the door? What if something happened to you and Conan-kun?"

"You're the ahou here!" Heiji protested as he stood up. "What kind of crazy girl are you, using a frying pan as a weapon? What if it was used earlier? You could have burned me!" Soon, the two friends started to bicker once again, causing Conan to sweatdrop.

"Conan-kun…"

He immediately froze up and slowly turned around to see a disappointed Ran. However, all he saw was her 'anger'.

"You promised you wouldn't get in the way of the police…" She said, frowning sadly.

~Actually, no, I didn't.~ Conan thought, half-heartily chuckling to himself. He then smiled child's smile. "But Ran-neechan, Satou-keiji asked me to help." He said in a pleading voice before being hit on the head by a fist. "ITAIIIIII!"

"Actually, I asked Hattori-kun, not you." Satou said, an angry mark on her face as she tried smiling.

Ran merely sighed and shook her head. "What am I going to do with you, Conan-kun…?" Again, Conan could only chuckle.

"At any rate…" Satou turned back to Ran. "Can you watch the door and make sure no one comes in or out of this room, Ran? We're…kind of short on hand here, so I'm afraid I'll have to borrow Conan-kun as well as Hattori-kun."

Ran frowned before nodding. "All right…" She kneeled down and looked at Conan, her eyes staring at him. "Conan-kun, listen to what Satou-keiji tells you to do and don't wander off your own, all right?"

"Haiiiii~~~!" Conan said, smiling as Ran stood up and walked out of the door along with Kazuha stomping away. He sighed and looked at Heiji, whose head now has a rather large bump on it.

"Itai…" He muttered as he poked the bump, wincing as he touched it.

"Daijoubu, Hattori-kun?" Takagi said as he walked up to the Osaka detective.

"Ehh…I'll survive." He grumbled as he got up, dusting his clothes off. "So? Did you two get their alibis?"

"H-hai!" Takagi said as he quickly took out his police notebook, fumbling it in the process as he opened it up. Clearing his throat, he proceeded as if nothing happened. "David-san was here in the kitchen, cooking a rather expensive meal. We've just asked Kazuha to go and ask the customer if this specific meal is true, but I doubt that will help his alibi at all…Sasaki-san was at the cashier for about an hour earlier, then went in the kitchen to help David-san."

"As for Mizuki-san and Saika-san, they were sitting at the table next to that window. "He pointed to a large window about two tables away. "Some of the customers and waiters have confirmed this as well. Mizuki-san left only to go use the bathroom for a few minutes and talked to a man outside who was later confirmed to be her driver."

"That nee-san has a driver…?" Heiji said, raising an eyebrow as Conan practically face palmed himself.

~She's just like Sonoko.~ He thought as he mentally laughed to himself. "Is that it, Takagi-keiji?"

"It seems so." He replied as he lowered his notebook. "Regardless, we'll need to search the scene a bit more closely for any more clues on the murderer."

"The question on my mind is the almond scent from the victim's mouth…" Heiji muttered as he held his chin. "It could be cyanide…or it could be from nee-san's perfume thing."

"Barou, it's an aromatic extract, not perfume." Conan said, narrowing his eyes. "There's a possibility Mizuki-neesan could have done it, but we're still not sure how she got it in his mouth. Any ideas?"

"Well…"Takagi thought for a moment before letting out a sigh. "Nothing really comes to mind…"

"The food…"

"Huh?" All three men said simultaneously as Satou walked up to them.

"He's a chef, remember?" Satou explained. "If, by some chance, he was cooking, he would have to taste it in order to determine if it's just right."

"That's it!" Heiji said, hitting the side of his fist onto his palm as a light bulb lit up in his mind. However, his happy, triumph face disappeared as he paused. "…But what would be the point of putting that in the food?"

"Ah! So that's where I left my bottle!" Mizuki exclaimed, catching the group's attention to her as he held up a small brown bottle filled with a sort of liquid. "Gomen, I must have left it here yesterday."

"It's a good thing David's father found it out earlier today." Sasaki said to her cousin, smiling. "It was in a similar bottle with the orange extract so he used it and noticed it after he put it in the soup."

"Wahhh! No wonder, it's already half empty!" Mizuki cried as she sort of shrank in despair.

"Ano…" The two girls looked up at the voice as they saw Takagi approaching them. "Did you say that the victim used that extract in his cooking, Sasaki-san?"

"Hai." She turned towards the officer as she continued to speak. "Mizuki left it here when I invited her over here yesterday and he mistaken it for the orange extract that was in a similar bottle. Unfortunately, he loss his sense of smell a few years back so he must have not noticed until after he added and tasted the almond extract."

"Well, there you have it!" Heiji said, a wide grin on his face. "There's one mystery solved!"

"Yet we're not sure if it IS the extract. It could be cyanide." Conan bluntly said, an imaginary arrow going right through Heiji's head. As the Osaka detective proceeded into sulking on the ground, Conan held his chin in his hand as he went into deep thought. ~The only thing bothering me still are those two slits around the bullet wound…It's too much of a coincidence that they're perfectly aligned with each other…~

"David-san, what are you doing?"

Conan blinked as he looked up, seeing David cutting carrots on the counter as Satou walked over to him and held his wrist, forcing him to stop cutting.

"I realize that my father's been murdered and all, but I have a restaurant to run right now." He snapped as he tried pulling away from Satou's grip to no avail. "I refuse to close the restaurant while there are customers waiting."

"What if you were using the murder weapon?" Saika said, walking up to him with her hands in her pockets as she went on the other side of him.

"The body didn't have a knife wound…according to the officers." He replied as he managed to break free of Satou's grip and continued to cut. "End of story."

"You're not thinking, baka!" Saika hissed as she grabbed his shoulder. David suddenly stop cutting and swung towards Saika, the knife outstretched a bit. Saika backed away quickly before the knife could do any harm to her, her eyes widen in shock and fear as David pointed the knife at her.

"I am thinking! My FATHER just died in my restaraunt!" He shouted, his body tense in anger and his eyes widen in rage. "Don't you dare tell me I'm not thinking, Saika!"

"A-At least move that damn knife away!" She said, her eyes practically fixed on the knife. Shaking her head, she went back to her 'calm and cool' normal self. "Until we know for sure who killed him, it's best not to touch ANYTHING in this kitchen. Who knows…they could have hidden things in the most unexpecting places!"

The two merely stared off: David's eyes full of rage and anger against Saika's calm and steady eyes. After a few moments, he closed his eyes and placed the knife back down on the table, his body relaxing.

"T-Tsumimasen, Saika-chan…" He muttered, holding his head in his hand. "I…I don't know what came over me like that…" Sasaki put her hands on his shoulders as he leaned over the counter. He glanced around the ground and froze, his eyes falling, yet again, on Saika. "S-Saika-chan…on your waist…"

Saika stiffen, although her expression stayed the same. "…Damn, didn't think you would be able to see it." She said as she moved the right half of her jacket out of the way, an expression of shock painted on everyone's face.

A revolver. Saika had a revolver attached to her hip. It had traces shown that it was stained with something, mostly around the barrel.

"I-If I may…" Takagi stuttered as he slowly took the gun off her hip and opened the barrel. There were 4 bullets inserted inside. The remaining two slots were empty, the brown stain entering into the slots.

"I didn't shoot him." Saika said bluntly, snapping Takagi's attention back to her. "The gun is mine, the bullets are mine, but I didn't shoot him. I never leave the bullets in the gun when I know I wouldn't need to use it."

"Who else would do it?" Sasaki suddenly said, taking a step forward. "It's your gun! How would anyone else be able to take it from you?"

"How should I know…?"Saika replied, tilting her hat down so that the shadow would hide her eyes. "I'm not sure myself…all I remember is you spilling coffee on me and Sano. I slept for only a few minutes so I doubt anyone would have taken it then."

Conan blinked, taking in the new information. "Ne, Takagi-keiji!" He said as he walked over to the detective. "Is there any coffee going inside the bullet slots?"

"Huh?" Takagi paused as he listened to Conan, then looked inside the slots. "I-It's true! It's hard to tell, but I can see some sort of stains inside!"

"I told you: Kurosawa-san spilt coffee on us. I had to wear a different jacket that Sano somehow had in her car in advance."

~That's it!" Conan suddenly thought as something hit him. "Oi! Hattori!" he hissed.

"You solved it, Kudou?" Heiji said as he leaned down, whispering to the shrunken detective. "Oi, tell me! I can't really make heads or tails out of this case for some reason..."

"Tch...just admit you didn't have a single clue." Conan muttered under his breath, not caring whether Heiji heard it or not. Luckly, he didn't hear it and he sighed. "All right, basically..." Conan leaned over and whispered his deduction into Heiji's ear. The more he listened, the more Heiji's eyes grew serious.

"Y-You're kidding…" He said. His only response was Conan shaking his head. "All right…well, we better wrap this show up."He stood up and the two of them returned to the group.

"Admit it, Saika! You're the one that shot Raine-san!" Sasaki shouted as her hands balled up into fists.

"I've said this once and I'll say it again: I did not fire this gun." Saika said, making no attempt to threaten her to prove her point.

"She's right." Heiji suddenly said, catching everyone's attention. Saika didn't bother looking up. "The one who killed Kyle Raine…" He raised his arm and pointed at the group.

"Was you!"

* * *

**Second chapter, finished! I'll upload the Japanese terms later _; busy with homework and such…So, do you guys have any idea who the culprit is? Is it really Saika because she has the gun (She may have not shot with the gun...but is that the only way to kill him? HMMMMM...oh shez, that was a spoiler lol; dang it)? Or is it David? Find out on the next episode of DragonBall what the frick am I talking about! /shot...**


	3. Chapter 3

**Yo! Zora here :I This one took a really long time, but it only happened because I actualy didn't really think through about how to reveal the murderer lol; In the next chapter, you'll find out how the title and the story will tie together (i might actually have it up tonight or tomorrow depending on if I get distracted or not) Hope you enjoy! I wasted a lot of paper editing this during school |D**

**EDIT: Oh, lovely. I'm starting to do my homework for school tomorrow and found a printed version of this chapter with edits all over I didn't add :I well it's fixed now. Sorry about that!**

* * *

"Was you!"

Everyone turned around, their faces painted with shock as they saw the person Heiji accusing. The culprit blinked a few times in confusion before pointing at themselves. Heiji gave a firm nod, indicating they were the culprit.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHH?" Mizuki cried "I did it?"

~O-oi, Hattori!~ Conan mentally shouted as he looked at his detective counterpart in disbelief. ~What the hell are you doing?~

"Stop joking!" David said firmly, taking a step forward. "Mizuki-chan would never do such a thing!"

"That's what she wants you to think!" Heiji replied matter-of-factly (not to mention proudly) as he began to pace around. "However, I'm a detective. I have evidence that you, Sano Mizuki, are the murderer!" He turned around, about to point at her again.

_**CLAAAAAAAAAANNNNG!**_

A frying pan met his face, causing him to fly backwards. Conan looked in terror before turning to the offender.

"Teme…are you accusing my cousin of murder?" Sasaki shouted, her anger clearly out of control. If David wasn't holding her back, one would suspect that Sasaki would murder Heiji right on the spot. "I'm going to kick your ass!"

"Sasaki, calm down!" David persuaded as he struggled to keep his hold on his fiancé. "Heiji-san, would you please explain what's going on?"

"Gladly..." Heiji somehow managed to say as he staggered up, his hand over his face as he walked over to the deceased Kyle Raine before turning back to the group. "The smell of almond is coming from his mouth. Therefore…" He pointed at Mizuki again. "You must have poisoned him! That container is filled with cyanide, not almond smelling essence!"

"W-What?" Mizuki said, making a puppy face before puffing her cheeks. "I didn't do anything! Besides, I never took a single step in the kitchen before we heard Sasaki scream! You big bully!"

Heiji flinched at the word 'bully' before sweat dropping and raising his arms to his defense. "Now now…."

"Ano….Hattori-kun?"

The detective blinked as he turned to Takagi, who was walking up to him. "Are you sure this is true…? This isn't the same as what you told us before." He whispered, glancing back at Mizuki from the corner of his eye.

Blinking for a moment, Heiji burst out laughing. "No, of course it isn't true!" He revealed as his laughter died away into a sheepish smile. "Well….Occhan isn't here with us so I thought I'd be him for a chan-ITAI!" He hopped around, holding his right foot in pain. Turning his head, he saw Conan with a very annoyed look on his face. Sweat dropping, he half-heartily chuckled before letting out a sigh.

~Teme….~ Conan thought before his face returned to the innocent little boy face he's all too well used to and ran off to the body. "A-re-re? Whoever shot this guy didn't do a very good job. There are weird slits around the wound."

"Nani?" Satou said as Takagi rushed over to Conan, trying to persuade him NOT to touch the body. She walked over and kneeled down, picking up the right flap of the jacket and looking at the bullet wound more closely. "Takagi-kun." She motioned her partner to take a look.

Takagi walked over and kneeled down as well, squinting his eyes before they flew open. "A-Ahhh! He's right!"

"Ne, Takagi-keiji! Can I see that gun?" Conan asked. With no time for the Officer to refuse, he swiped the gun away from him and ran a little ways off. "Wahhh! So cool!" He said, holding the gun with both hands.

"C-Conan-kun, that's dangerous!" Satou said, taking a step forward as she reached over and grabbed the boy's shoulder. "Give me the gun right now!"

Conan was surprised by Satou's sudden grip on his shoulder and pulled the trigger. Everyone froze as the sound of the gunshot echoed in the kitchen.

"What's going on?" Ran said as she and Kazuha came in the kitchen. She gasped and her eyes widen as she saw Conan with the gun in his hand. "Conan-kun!"

~Y-Yabai….~ He thought, his eye twitching before sheepishly laughing. "G-Gomen nasai, Ran-neesan…I just wanted to see the gun and Satou-keiji took me by surprise so I…."

Satou's eye brow twitched before snatching the gun from Conan and hitting him on the head again.

"ITAIIIIIIII!"

"You're just lucky no one got hurt!" Satou shouted.

"Demo…" the small detective whined as he rubbed his head; the bump on his head seemed to be two times bigger than before. He blinked before walking up to the wall where the bullet hit. "A-re-re? Satou-keiji, doesn't this look kind of like the wound on the victim?"

"Huh?" Satou muttered as she walked up and took a closer look at the wall. Her eyes slowly widen, realizing what the boy said was true. "It does!" She quickly narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms, resting her chin on her hand. "But that makes no sense…There's no way the bullet hole would look so similar to the bullet wound on the victim…"

While she pondered on this thought, Conan looked up and saw a door that no one seemed to have noticed. He glanced over to Heiji, who silently motioned him to go and check it out. As silently and ninja-like as possible, he sneaked in the room, making sure no one noticed him going in.

"Huh?" David walked up in front of Satou and put his hand on the wall, running his fingers over the bullet hole. "Sasaki, isn't this where Dad stabbed the knife?"

"Now that you mention it…" Sasaki said, crossing her arms as she, too, took a closer look. "It seems like it."

"The victim stabbed the wall with a knife?" Takagi repeated as he stood up.

"Yeah…Dad came home drunk a few nights ago for some reason." David hesitated. "We…got into a fight and he threatened to stab me as he picked up the kitchen knife and stabbed the wall next to him." After getting rather strange looks from everyone, he held up his hands and sweat dropped. "He did apologize the day after, though, so it wasn't that serious." He turned back to the wall and frowned. "That's strange…I could have sworn I patched it back up yesterday."

The female officer stared at the bullet hole paired with the knife dent, then turned and walked to the body. She kneeled down and took a closer look at the wound before her eyes widen. "So that's the reason…" she mumbled.

"Umm…Satou-san…?" Takagi said as she stood back up.

"The victim was stabbed first…wasn't he?" She concluded as she turned to Heiji, whose response was a single firm nod.

"The victim was stabbed in the heart, probably an instant kill." He stated as he paced around the room. "Whoever stabbed him tried to frame Saika with the bullet covering the majority of the wound. The only way to even get to the victim himself was to go through the kitchen, which was off limits to normal customers. Not only that, they had to pass David-san, who was working in the kitchen next door. Thus…the murderer can only be…" He turned around and pointed, his eyes narrowing into a stern glare.

"Kurosawa Sasaki, it can only be you!"

The pupils in Sasaki's eyes shrank; her body noticeably tense as she stared at the ground. She let out a soft chuckle before returning to her normal, calm self. "Hattori-kun, are you sure you got the right person?" She calmly said with a small smile. "If I murdered Kyle-san, how come David didn't hear anything? Are you suggesting he's trying to cover up for me?"

"Although that would be like him to protect his fiancé, David didn't hear a sound." Heiji simply said. "You managed to strangle him so that he would fall unconscious."

"Are you so sure about that, Meitantei?" Saika said as she took a step forward, her eyes closed and her hands in the pockets of her jacket. "David would surely have heard his father choking or some sort of sound to signal that something was happening to him."

"You guys are so mean…" Everyone paused and turned around as Conan came out of the room next door to the kitchen, his arms behind his back as he showed a childish pout. "I kept yelling and calling from the other room, but no one answered."

"You were…calling for us?" Takagi said. Something sparked in his mind as he quickly ran over to the door and entered the room.

"Takagi-kun?" Satou questioned, only for the closing of the door to be her response. Roughly around 30 seconds pasted before her partner came out of the room, his eye slightly widen in surprise.

"Did you hear what I was saying in the other room…?" Everyone just shook their heads. Takagi then turned around and looked at the door. "That room…"

"…Is soundproof." Saika concluded. "Isn't that right, David?"

"Y-Yeah…" He managed to say before putting his hands on his waist and looking at the ground, kicking a random piece of trash he seemed to neglect picking up. "That room belongs to my dad…He uses it to relax and work on his own recipes, so he asked us if we could soundproof it for his convenience." He looked up at the group. "There are times where Sasaki or I would have to go in there since he seems to hog all the rare and important ingredients as well as certain recipes."

"Did either of you go in that room today?" Heiji questioned the chef.

"Hai. Mizuki-chan just happened to be in the kitchen around the time of the supposed murder so I asked her to go get Sasaki. After the two of them returned here, I went in the room to grab a few ingredients." David turned over to Mizuki and smiled. "Is that right, Mizuki-san? Sasaki-san?"

"Eh?" Mizuki perked up, her head slightly tilted in confusion.

"Yes, that was right." Sasaki confirmed while her cousin was still in a minor state of confusion. "Mizuki was poking around the kitchen just like yesterday so I spent the time yelling at her."

"Odd…I don't seem to recall that…" Mizuki muttered as she put a finger on her chin and tilted her head slightly the other way.

~Kuso…We're just going in a giant circle…~ Conan crossed his arms as he stared at the ground while pacing around. ~There has to be something decisive…something ultimately prove that Sasaki was the killer.~

_**Thump**_

He blinked and looked up and around, hearing the strange sound. "…Heh. I must be going crazy, hearing things and all…" He muttered to himself. Saika glanced over at Conan, narrowing her eyes.

_**Thump….Thump….**_

"Eh?" This time, Heiji noticed the sound as well. He walked over to where Conan was, looking around. "Ne, Kudo, you weren't making that sound just now, were you?"

"No…" Conan said as he looked around as well. "I thought I was hearing things."

"It's coming from the closet, I think." Saika muttered to them quietly as the officers along with Sasaki and David continue to argue with each other of Sasaki being the possible murderer. "The sound is a bit muffled as well as a slight echo, isn't it?"

"Yeah…you're right." Heiji replied as he walked up to the closet. The closet towered over Heiji, nearly reaching the ceiling. He was about to reach over and open it until he noticed the handles were bounded by a rather rusty and old chain and a lock. The handles themselves were shaped like a very short 'U' so there was no other way to open the door or lock it by itself. Narrowing his eyes, he tapped on the closet, getting a hollow echo coming from it.

_**Tap, Tap.**_

The three teenagers stood and wait, seeing if there was a reply from the tapping.

**_Thump…Thump…_**

"Ahhh! There's something in the closet!" Conan cried, alerting the rest of the group.

"Nani?" Satou said as Takagi walked over to them.

"We heard a sound coming from this closet." Heiji pointed at the lock and chains. "David-san, do you have a key to the lock?"

"Huh? Lock?" David moved to a position so that he was able to see the lock from a distance. Raising an eyebrow while scratching the back of his head, he replied, "That's strange…the closet normally doesn't have a lock on it nor do I recognize the lock and chain themselves."

"They were always in that closet to begin with, David." Sasaki stated as she stood next to her fiancé. "We rarely use them, so it's understandable you wouldn't remember."

The two boys froze, their eyes widen in horror before staring at each other. "We got to get this open, then!" Heiji shouted as he grabbed both handles and tried opening it. As expected, the doors wouldn't budge an inch. "Kuso!"

"Wait a minute, Hattori-kun!" Satou said firmly as she put her hand on his shoulder. "Are you seriously suggesting someone's in that closet right now?"

"Well, give me an explanation of the weird sounds coming from it," He argued as he kept trying to force the doors to open. "Not to mention David and Sasaki JUST confirmed that this lock and chain aren't used so much that they nearly forgot about it!"

"…All right, then." Satou said, giving up with attempting to convince the Osakan Detective. "We'll have to pick the lock and-"

"There's no time!" Conan shouted. "What if whoever is in there is suffocating right now?" A look of worried was painted on his face as Heiji tried everything in his power to open the door. Pulling at it, biting it, glaring at it, cussing at it. Nothing worked, to his anger and dismay.

Satou narrowed her eyes before reaching to her waist. She froze, patting the area before glancing down, seeing nothing there. Her eyes widen a bit, realizing where what was missing was before a sour look replaced her expression. "…Takagi-kun!" She called out, to which her partner responded by walking up to her. "Do you have your gun?"

"H-Hai!" He said, quickly fumbling for his gun before handing it off to her. "Umm…Satou-san what are you-" He was quickly cut off, seeing Satou pointing the gun at the closet. His face paled, his eye twitch, realizing her motive. "Wait, you're not going to…"

"Hattori-kun, Conan-kun, out of the way!" Satou cried. The two detectives soon realized what she was doing as well and ran off as soon as possible. Her finger clicked the trigger and the bullet shot out of the gun, hitting the lock and forcing it to open while at the same time, causing the lock to fly away. Heiji quickly removed the rusty chain from the handles and opened the door. Something rather large fell out of the closet, shocking everyone in the room.

"S….SASAKI!"

On the ground that fell out of the closet was an unconscious Sasaki. Her hands and feet were bound by rope and a piece of cloth over her mouth, acting as a gag. David quickly rushed over to her, trying to wake up the knocked out female while attempting to remove the ropes.

"But…if that's Sasaki…" Mizuki muttered, pointing at the fallen female. "Then who…." She turned around to point at 'Sasaki' before noticing the fake making a run for it.

"Oi, what the hell are you guys doing? She's a fake!" Heiji cried as Conan quickly gave chase along with Ran, Kazuha, and Satou. However, to no avail, she was quite faster then they were. For a moment, all hope was lost as she neared the exit to freedom.

"Gotcha." 'Sasaki' suddenly tripped over and falling flat on the ground. She rose up to start her escape again, but was forced back down with Saika twisting one of her arms behind her back and her weight over hers. "Did you have a nice trip?"

"Tch…" 'Sasaki' muttered to herself as she felt the change of grips from Saika to Satou and the cold steel of the handcuffs being locked onto her wrists. Her escape was now completely ruined.

"Nnnrgh…." The real Sasaki, however, was starting to come to, give or take a few coughs. They have managed to remove the ropes as well as the gag on her and she started to stir. Slowly but surely, her eyes started to open.

"Saki-chan, are you ok?" Mizuki said as she and David crowded around her.

"Y-Yeah…" She mumbled as she slowly sat up. She winced, holding the back of her head.

Heiji let out a sign before glaring at the closet doors and the chain that was on the floor. Takagi tapped his shoulder to grab his attention and the two of them moved away from the three.

"Did you already know that Sasaki was a fake?" Takagi whispered to the detective.

"Actually, I never suspected it." Heiji confessed, holding his chin. "If we knew how Sasaki was supposed to act, it would have been more obvious." He turned to Mizuki. "How come you didn't comment about her actions?"

Mizuki tilted her head. "I don't really know my cousin that well…We only met after my dad decided to come over to Tokyo."

"That still doesn't mean you shouldn't know if you met her yesterday." The two guys froze as they heard the doors of the restaurant opening and peeked outside the kitchen to see a swarm of officers and forensic scientists coming inside as well as a familiar inspector. "Megure-keibu, over here!" Takagi cried out, waving his arm around as the inspector walked up to them.

"Sorry that we weren't able to come here earlier." Megure apologized to the two guys. "So? What's the current situation?"

"Well…" Takagi and Heiji started to explain to the Inspector the events that happened as the forensic team started swarming in the kitchen, locating fingerprints as well as the possible murder weapon.

"I see…" Megure concluded as they finished reporting before breaking into a giant grin. "Well, we owe you a big thanks, Hattori-kun! If you weren't here, we'd have sent an innocent girl to jail!"

"Yeah…About that…" Satou intervened as she walked in the kitchen along with the handcuffed imposter, Saika, and Conan. "It's true that she isn't the murderer, and she HAS helped us with this case, but…" The female officer glanced at the girl. "She has illegal possession of a gun. That alone is a crime itself, Megure-keibu."

"Are you sure about that?" Conan said as walked past the three females with his hands behind his head.

"What are you talking about?"

"He's saying that I could be lying about that gun being mine." Saika explained. "However, why would I do that if it means I go to jail, bozu?" She smirked as she saw the little detective's annoyed look. "Not only that, testing me for gun powder reaction, my ability of using a gun, and getting testimony from others won't help confirm that this gun is mine or not, Sano." She closed her eyes as her friend held up her finger; her mouth opened to say something, but instead resulted in a small gape.

"Couldn't you just check who owns the gun back at the Police Department?" Kazuha said, walking up to them while Ran walked over to Conan, obviously not pleased. A few people could notice the fear in the young boy's face, which was understandable when facing a girl five times his height with the use of Karate at her disposal.

"Ahou!" Heiji shouted, glaring at his childhood friend. "That'll take a while. They'll still hold her in custody until they confirm it!"

"Who are you calling an ahou, ahou?" Kazuha argued. "It's better than being falsely accused!"

"Nani?" Once again, the Osakan coup-errr….pair started another verbal battle (of epic proportions!).

"What about fingerprints?"

The two stopped their fighting/bickering and turned to the innocent looking boy that is Conan.

"What are you trying to say, Kudou?" Heiji said. He noticed his smaller detective counterpart was waving his arms, a shocked look on his face. The teenager realized the problem and started stammering. "Ku…ku….Kuso!" He finally managed to say. "Kuso, tell us already!" His eyebrow twitched, hoping the others followed along with his little 'recovery' as Conan face palmed himself.

"If there's someone's fingerprints on the gun that you wouldn't expect in the first place…" He muttered angrily, glaring at the taller boy before returning to his little boy act. "The only one that touched the gun for sure is Saika-neesan. There's a possibility Mizuki-neesan or Sasaki-neesan touched it…but what if someone else other than those three's fingerprints showed up?" He couldn't help but show a devious smirk. "Wouldn't that be strange?"

"That's true." Megure said, thinking hard before nodding. "All right, we'll have the gun tested for fingerprints and have it sent in for confirmation. Now then, the question is…" He turned to the two officers. "Where is the gun?"

"Ah, I placed it on the counter over there." Satou replied, pointing over to where she placed the gun.

...

The gun wasn't on the counter. Satou and Takagi looked shocked while Megure merely looked at them with a raised eyebrow.

"Megure-keibu!" A man called out to the inspector as he ran up to him. He carried a plastic bag containing the gun in question. "Conan-kun already asked me to check for fingerprints."

"Oh?" Megure turned to the boy, whose back was turned to them with his hands behind his head. Shaking his head, he turned back to the man. "And? What did you find out, Tome-san?"

"Hai! It's true that Saika as well as Sasaki's….no…the imposter's fingerprints were on the gun…however…"

"However?" The inspector raised his eyebrow.

"It seems the victim's fingerprints cover over the majority of the gun."

"Nani?" The officers stared in shock. Takagi then took a step forward. "T-Then, are you telling us the gun belongs to the victim?"

"That's what it's looking like." Tome said. "I sent the number to headquarters so you guys will find out later."

"But why would the victim have a gun?" Satou muttered.

_**Tap, Tap.**_

She noticed the sound and looked up, seeing Saika standing against the wall. She raised her right arm and knocked on the clock flushed onto the wall behind her.

"That's the reason." She said. "Both for the gun and our friend's motive."

"Wait, are you saying the victim was a part of the CIA?" Conan suddenly shouted. His eyes were widen in shock, his body tense and shaking. Saika swore she was breaking into a cold sweat. Realizing his reaction just now, he shook it away and merely smiled like an innocent boy. "T-that's really cool!"

"Ho? I'm surprised you know this, bozu." Saika said, glancing at the small detective with wary eyes. "Most people don't know this…especially a grade school kid like you."

"E-erm….well…" Conan stammered. ~Not good.~ He thought before laughing sheepishly. "It's because I heard it from Shinichi-niichan!"

"Shinichi?" Saika repeated, raising her eyebrow.

"Ah, that high school meitantei!" Mizuki suddenly said over Saika's shoulder, causing the normally calm girl to jerk away in surprise.

"Oi, Sano! Stop being a freaking ninja!" She hissed as Mizuki merely stuck out her tongue, smiling. After getting herself together, Saika cleared her throat before her gaze returned to her rather cold glare. "And? Who is this 'Shinichi'?"

"Ah, he's Ran's boyfriend!" Kazuha said, causing Ran and Conan's faces to turn completely red. Heiji chuckled at the sight of Conan and poked his head. The little boy merely swung back to his position, not bothering to do anything but stare in surprise with his red face.

"K-Kazuha-chan!" She protested. "You're starting to act like Sonoko!" Her reply was a giant grin.

"Kudou-kun was a great help for the police." Megure admitted, rubbing the back of his head. "However, he's changed after he decided to go into hiding about a year ago…well, it seems that way. He's asked us to keep his involvement in cases a secret."

"It's as if he's trying to erase the fact he exist…give or take a few group of people." Satou muttered, glancing at the floor as she thought long and hard.

"But we have the Sleeping Kogorou and Conan-kun!" Takagi jumped in quickly. Saika merely raised her eyebrow again, but said nothing.

"At any rate, we better get going." Satou said. She turned to Sasaki and David. "We'll have to come back later to get the full story, all right?"

"Hai…" Sasaki said softly. Just by the sound of her voice and her tired look indicated she wasn't fully herself yet. "Arigato gozaimasu."

Megure nodded as he and Satou left with the murderer, the forensic team following suit. Takagi watched them leave before turning to the pair.

"Ano…would you like me to drive you to the hospital?" He offered to Sasaki. "It's just to see if there are any serious injuries other than your slight concussion."

"Un. Just give me a little time to close up the restaurant." She requested. The officer nodded and left the kitchen, walking to the main lobby and sitting down on one of the chairs near the door.

Sasaki gave a small bow before turning to the teens and smiled. "Thank you for everything. You saved my life and found the real criminal before they took an innocent person to jail."

"No problem!" Heiji said, smiling.

"Are you going to be ok, Sasaki-san?" Ran said, worried.

"It shouldn't be life threatening." She simply said, smiling.

"Sano…how the hell did you not realize that girl wasn't your cousin…?" Saika said, obviously irritated.

Mizuki shrugged as she backed away at her angered friend. "Oi oi, I don't know her really well so I don't know how she acts. Give me a break!" Her response was the rolling of her friend's eyes.

"At any rate, you saved us." David said, taking a step forward before bowing and rubbing the back of his head. "Saika-chan, I'm sorry for assuming you were the killer…"

"You didn't assume anything." Saika said. "I said that gun was mine after you saw it."

"Regardless, I immediately jumped to conclusions in my mind." David confessed. "As a token of our appreciation, we'll cook you up a feast to take home."

"Ah, you don't have to do that." Ran quickly said, holding up her hands in defense.

"It's the least we could do." Sasaki insisted, smiling. "Besides, we'll still do it whether you agree or not."

Ran laughed sheepishly before sighing heavily. With her giving up convincing them, the two started to cook together.

Around 30 minutes later, there were around four giant plastic bags in front of them on a table. Everyone, even Takagi, stared in shock and amazement.

"Since I was already cooking for another customer, I found out I made a bit too much so I added it with the rest as well as just a few extra ingredients." David said as he put his hand behind his head. "At least you don't have to worry about shopping tonight." He started to laugh.

"Ok, maybe we overdid it a bit…" Sasaki confessed, chuckling to herself.

"You think?" Saika blankly said, her eye twitching at the amount of food.

"Oh wow, thanks!" Ran said. "We should stop by Hakase's house and eat there since Otou-san won't be home today." Ran turned to Mizuki and Saika. "You should come, too!"

"Yeah, that sounds like a great idea!" Kazuha agreed.

"Of course we'll come! We couldn't deny such a kind offer!" Mizuki said, wrapping her arm around Kazuha's neck.

Saika blinked before sighing. "I got no choice…Sano's my ride home, anyways."

"Oh, Saika-chan, before you go…" David walked over to the counter and kneeled down, hiding himself from view. A few moments later and he rose back up with a box in his hands. Walking over to Saika, he put the box in her outstretched hands. "Here. Mizuki-chan told us how much you loved sweets, so we made this cake for you as a gift."

The girl stared, surprised at the sudden gift. "T-thanks." She stammered, still unable to believe it.

"Well, we better get going." Heiji said as he grabbed two of the bags and simply walked out, raising one of his arms up. "Ja ne!"

Everyone else bowed to the two couple and left the restaurant.

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**And that's the end of that! It actually feels like I cut it off in the end :I I probably did because if I didn't, it would have been the equivalent of two chapters rather than one lol; again, I'll put up translations later X_X sorry for any inconvenience!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Zora here! Yeah, sorry about the FREAKING SLOWEST update :Y School caught me and was all like "DON'T WORK ON YOUR FANFIC! FFFFFFFFFFF!" So, to make up for my mess up, I'll have two chappies for you :D! Was rather brain dead for both, however, so sorry for any failness. Hope you enjoy!**

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Sano ran ahead of everyone else before stopping next to a large, black limousine. She turned around and waved to the rest of the group. "Over here!"

"Mi-Mizuki-chan, you have a limo?" Ran exclaimed in surprise. Heiji and Conan could only half-heartily laugh to themselves.

"Yeah…she's definitely like that Nee-san…" Heiji muttered as Conan stared at her with half-moon eyes.

Soon, everyone got in the large vehicle. The inside back area (the area behind the driver and passenger seats) was big and spacious enough so that everyone could face each other. The limo started up and drove off, its destination set to Agasa's house.

"I don't believe we got your names." Saika said, leaning against the window to her right, staring off to who knows where.

"Oh yeah…we must have forgotten because of all that's happened today. Gomen nasai." Ran sheepishly said. "I'm Mouri Ran." She then turned and held out her hand to the others. "This is Tomoya Kazuha, Hattori Heiji, and Edogawa Conan."

"Konnichiwa!" Conan chirped.

Saika nodded, acknowledging their greetings. "You guys already know about me and Sano." She opened her mouth to say more before pausing, glancing up at the ceiling. "Ah…that reminds me…" She muttered in English as she dug into her jacket pocket. As her hand retreated from the pocket, she pulled out a cell phone and started to dial some numbers before putting it up to her ear.

"Ah! We didn't call Hakase to see if it was ok to come over!" Ran realized, after seeing Saika using her cellphone.

"Daijoubu, Ran-neechan. I already gave him a call earlier while David-san and Sasaki-san were making the food." Conan reassured, smiling. "He says it's perfectly fine for us to come over."

"That's good." Ran sighed.

"Damn it all!" The two of them looked up in shock at the sudden and harsh tone of the English curse word, seeing Saika closing her phone and shoving it back in her pocket, her eye twitched in annoyance. "Stupid phone died on me…Sano. Can I use your phone?"

"Eh?" Mizuki looked up before sweat dropping and putting her hands together. "Gomen, Saika-chan, but I sort of…broke mine yesterday."

Saika stared at her friend, obviously irritated at her words with her narrowed, glaring, twitching eyes. The girl sighed before looking out the window again. "Why am I not surprised…?" she muttered to herself.

"If you want, you can use mine." Ran said, digging into her own jean pocket before pulling out the phone. "Here."

"Ah, sorry for the inconvenience." Saika replied, accepting the phone. She flipped it open and started to dial the number.

"Ne, are you going to call **him**?" Mizuki asked, leaning over her shoulder in an attempt to see the phone's screen.

"Him?" Conan repeated, his curiosity peaking. "Who are you going to call, Saika-neesan?"

"Ah…just a friend." The phone started to ring a few times before a 'click' was heard. "Hel-"

"Saika-neechaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!"

Her eye twitched at the child-like voice before face palming herself. "Akio…what are you doing with his phone?" She could only mutter.

"Ah, nii-san left his phone at my house again." The boy, Akio, responded. "I'm on my way to meet him right now."

"Joy." Saika simply said, groaning. "Well, tell that idiot of a human to give me a call once he gets the phone, will ya?"

"Kay!" The boy smiled. "Oh, that's right." He looked to the side before holding up another electronic device. "I got your iTouch screen fixed. I'm going to stop by your house and drop it off."

"How about tomorrow? I'm going over to a friend's house right now so I don't know for sure if I'll be back today."

"It's ok; I have a spare key to your house!"

"…"

Conan couldn't help but chuckle with half-moon eyes. ~One would mistake him for a stalker…the way he talked about that…~ He thought.

"Ne, can we go to the park tomorrow?" The boy's face looked so happy, he's jumping up and down at that moment.

"Depends..."

"Ehhhhhhhhhhh? Why can't you make up your mind!" He whined before going into a puppy pout. Someone moved behind Akio and he suddenly fell forward, dropping the phone. It landed on its side; the only thing visible was the floor from the side as well as Saika's iTouch.

"Oi, you ok?" Saika said, raising her eyebrow.

"Y-yeah…" The phone started to move on its own as Akio picked that and the iTouch up before patting himself down with one hand. "Who was that jerk? He could at least say 'Excuse me' or 'Sorry' or something!" He puffed his cheeks before turning back to the phone. "Anyways, I'll see you later, Saika-neechan. Train's here."

"Yeah, ja ne." Saika mumbled as the call ended. She pressed the 'End call' button and closed the phone before returning it to its owner. "Thanks again."

"Not a problem." Ran said as she took her phone back before putting it back in her pocket. She blinked as she felt the car slowing down to a stop.

"Ojo-sama," The driver suddenly said, glancing at Mizuki via the rear view mirror. "We have arrived."

All right. Thanks again, Mabashi!" Mizuki happily said as she opened the door and stepped out of the card. Saika opened the other door and the group got out as well. Mizuki walked up to the driver's window and leaned over. "You know, you could just come in with us."

The driver tilted his hat slightly. "I am very honored for the offer, Ojo-sama. However, the Master called and is in need of my assistance. Please forgive me."

"Oh…all right." The girl said. "I'll give you a call if we need to be picked up then."

"Take care." The driver rolled up his window and started to back up his car before driving off.

"Oh, Conan-kun! Ran-kun! Hello." The two perked up and turned around, seeing a rather large and elderly man walking to them.

"Ah! Ohayo, Hakase." Ran said as she walked up to him and smiled. "Sorry for asking you so suddenly."

"It's fine, it's fine!" The professor insisted as he moved out of the way and extended his arm inside his home. "Please, come in."

The group went inside the rather large home. Conan blinked as he looked around. Usually she would be here as well, but he only saw the people that came in the house.

"If you're looking for Ai-chan, she's in her room." Someone said as a tall, slender man walked up to Conan. "It looks like she doesn't like me, though."

"Subaru-san! It's been a while!" Ran exclaimed as she tilt her head. "How have you been?"

"Just fine, thank you for asking."

"Ne, Ran." Ran turned around as Kazuha elbowed her arm. "Who is he?" she muttered, glancing back at the unknown person.

"Yeah, yeah, who are they?" Mizuki pestered.

"This is Agasa-hakase!" Conan chirped, pointing to the large, elderly man. "He's a very good friend of ours. He has lots of games and cool inventions and takes us camping!" He motioned his arms to show how 'awesome' it is as he sweat-dropped in his mind.

"And this is Okiya Subaru-san He's a college graduate." Ran said as the man bowed to them. "His house was burned down during a case so he's staying at Shinichi's house for the meantime."

"Ho? And said Shinichi that isn't here allowed a complete stranger to live in his very home?" Saika questioned, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow. "Isn't that strange?"

"Ah…well, when you put it that way, it does seem strange…" Ran muttered.

"Shinichi-niichan trusts Subaru-san!" Everyone turned to the small boy. "He said that a fan of Sherlock Holmes can't be a bad guy!"

"Oh really, bozu?" She quickly kneeled down, causing Conan to back away due to the sudden action as well as her rather piercing glare. "And how does he know about Subaru-san being a fan of Holmes?"

"U-Uhh…" He sweat dropped. "I-I told him! I was the one who asked him after Subaru-san's house was burned down!" He backed away even further as Saika moved closer. "It's true!"

Technically, it was true…He was Shinichi himself, after all.

She blinked a few times before standing back up. "Oh well…who am I to judge their decision….especially since I haven't met him myself." She gave up before shooting one last glare at Conan from the corner of her eye, sending shivers down the poor boy's body.

"At any rate," Ran suddenly said, clapping her hands together. "We better get dinner ready."

"She's right!" Mizuki agreed. She walked over to Saika and quickly grabbed a hold of her arm before dragging her away. "Come on!"

"Huh?" Saika cried as she tried pulling away from her friend's grip. "O-oi! Why are you dragging ME? I can't cook to save a life!" She shouted in desperation.

"Come on, it'll be fuuun!" Mizuki encouraged at the resisting girl. Saika let out a sigh before glaring at the two boys snickering and chuckling at the sight of the girl who had looks to kill being simply dragged away by her friend. Suddenly, they realized they were being dragged as well.

"Oi, Kazuha!" Heiji shouted, trying to pry the girl's grip from his arm. "Why are ya taking me? Didn't I help enough LAST time I tried cooking?"

"Urusai! There's a lot of food and not enough people to prepare it!" Kazuha shouted back. "Besides, it serves you two right, laughing at Saika-chan like that!"

5 minutes later…

"How did we get into this mess again…?" Conan muttered as he raised what was supposed to be a cucumber. Just like the last time, they refuse to let go of each other and cut all the way through. He could hear the Osakan detective grumbling as he was trying to keep the pot from overflowing.

"We're detectives, not chefs!" he grunted before deciding to turn down the heat of the stove. "Stupid Kazuha and the nee-chans…."

"I'm sorry, WHAT did you say, Heiji?" Kazuha's voice lingered from the far side of the kitchen as she was helping Ran and Subaru cooking. He flinched at the thought of the angry girl holding a knife in her hand as she said that.

"N-Nothing!" he managed to say before grumbling as he unsuccessfully cut more vegetables.

"This is ridiculous…" Saika muttered as she slammed the top of a pot back on the boiling mass. Her left hand was covered in cuts that were already mended and her right was covered in small, minor burns. She let out a string of curses in a mix of English and Japanese as the top fell into the pot and splashed boiling water, threatening to burn her once again as she staggered back. The two boys couldn't help but snicker at her rather amateur mistake that even THEY wouldn't make before silencing themselves as they felt her death glare and continued to work.

After a painstaking 10 more minutes of preparing the food and failing, the three 'chefs' were pretty much dead on the couch, as they have pretty much given up. Heiji was lying on his stomach while Conan was lying on his back. As for Saika, she was lying back on a chair and staring at the ceiling with an empty glare.

"Aww, come on, guys. It wasn't that bad!" Mizuki chirped in as she popped her head behind Saika's chair. Her response was groaning from the boys and a glare from her friend before she backed away.

"You guys! Dinner's ready!" Ran called out as she put down a pot on the counter. Conan raised his head slowly, wincing at the lights from the house before jumping off Heiji's back and making his way to the table. After the little weight was gone, Heiji got up and followed suit. They both took their seats and picked up their chopsticks before slamming their hands together.

"Itadakimasu!" everyone chorused before they began to eat.

"Ara?" Kazuha said, seeing Saika still on the chair. "Saika-chan, come on! Your food is gonna get cold!"

"Don't worry about me, I'll eat a bit later." She called back, waving her hand. "I don't want to touch that food for a good 30 minutes after all the pain it gave me."

"All right, then…" Kazuha muttered, disappointed she wouldn't be able to talk with the girl.

"This food is delicious." Subaru commented as he picked up some of the meat from one plate and put it on his own. "Where did you guys get it from again?"

"We got it at that new restaurant that opened up near Tropical Land." Ran said as she grabbed a napkin and started cleaning the stray rice that was surrounding Conan's mouth (to his shock and dismay with a snickering Heiji). The group explained to Agasa and Subaru about the events in the restaurant as they ate.

"How unfortunate…" Agasa muttered as he reached for the chicken. He stopped and glanced back, then swiftly took it and made it look like nothing happened.

"At the very least, you saved Sasaki-san and found the murderer." Subaru replied before putting his chopsticks down. "Though I'm rather surprised…what was a CIA agent doing there in the first place?"

"We really don't know…" Ran said, looking down on her food and thinking about the question. Heiji and Conan exchanged glances, a thought that loomed over both of their heads.

"Well, it's best not to think too deeply about this, since it doesn't have anything to do with you." Subaru suggested before standing up. He grabbed a clean plate and put food on it.

"Are you taking food to that girl?" Kazuha asked.

"Well, I was going to try." He replied as he was done filling up the plate. "It doesn't look like she'll let me in her room, though, so I'll just leave it on the counter for her."

"I'll make sure to give it to her." Agasa reassured with a smile.

_**Ring…Ring…**_

The sounds of a cell phone going off echoed the room. However, everyone around the table concluded it did not belong to them before they resumed to talking about today's events. Conan and Heiji followed the sound and settled his eyes at Saika. She was making slight movements before a cell phone screen was visible to where they were sitting. They heard a series of beeps before the screen closed on them.

"Ne, Saika-neesan!" Conan chirped up as he jumped down the chair and walked over to her. "I thought you said your phone died."

"Yeah, it did." Saika said to the young boy. "Sano and I have the same type of phones and she had a spare charger in her limo, so I took it out and charged it while we were preparing dinner."

"Did he send you a text, Saika-chan?" Mizuki said, leaning over her chair.

"Un." Saika flipped the phone back out and looked at the time. "Company's over at our house, so I need to find a place to sleep."

"What do ya mean?" Heiji said, raising an eyebrow. "Just because there's people over doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to go back to your home."

"These people are important people from where my friend works." She replied bluntly. "Don't know why they didn't meet at the office or something, but I don't feel like barging in and getting him possibly fired."

"So what are you going to do, since you can't go home?" Ran asked in a worried tone.

"I honestly don't know." Saika simply stated, shrugging. "Didn't expect this, so I didn't bring my credit card since Sano wanted to pay for the lunch. There's also NO WAY in hell I'll stay over at Sano's with her rabid dog of a guard dog, but it looks like I won't have a choice." She threw her arms behind her head and leaned back on the chair. "I wouldn't want to make things troublesome by asking to sleep over here, Agasa-san."

"Oh, it wouldn't be troubling to us, but…" Agasa rubbed the back of his head. "I would have to ask Ai-chan first. I wouldn't want her to feel uncomfortable about this."

"What if we stayed over?" Heiji suggested, raising his hand. "The kid won't be frightened if we're here, right Conan-kun?" He kneeled down to the small boy and pats his small head, grinning like an idiot.

"Un!" He said cheerfully, turning back at Heiji and glared at him with a twitching eye. ~Is a head pat really necessary?~ He walked over to Ran and Kazuha. "Is that all right, Ran-neechan? Can we stay over here?"

"Well…All right." Ran said, smiling. "If you two really want to, you can stay here." She looked up at Agasa. "Is that all right, Hakase?"

"Perfectly fine!" The professor replied with a grin. "Ai-chan would be very happy!"

"Ah, look at the time!" Mizuki said, looking at her watch. "Sorry guys, but this is where I'll have to make my leave." She smiled. "It was really fun meeting you all!"

"Likewise!" Ran agreed and smiled.

"Saika-chan, you want me to pick you up tomorrow morning?" Mizuki said as she tilted her head to see her friend.

"I'll be fine…probably get that idiot to pick me up as revenge for that." She mumbled.

"All right then…well, good night, then!" she said, waving to everyone as she left the house and towards the limousine (which she probably called a few minutes ago). After a little bit more talking, Subaru left the house and went to the one next door while Agasa went out with Ran and Kazuha to drop them off at the Detective Agency, leaving the two detectives and their new female friend alone.

At the moment Agasa and the girls left, Saika reluntanly got out of the chair and made her way to the kitchen counter, taking a plate and bowl that Mizuki left her. She settled down on the table and started to eat. At the same time, Heiji announced that he and Conan were going to take the food to Haibara. Thus, they grabbed the food and took off without hesitation.

The two arrived at the young girl's room who, opened the door and gave them the usual boring looking stare before letting them in. After handing her the food, Heiji took it upon himself to sit down on the ground, cross-legged.

"Today's been crazy!" He shouted, rubbing his head. "First there's a bomb threat, then a murder at the restaurant…Looks like they can't stay away from you, Kudou!" His only response was a grunt from the small boy.

"I take it you're not in here just to watch me eat." Haibara muttered as she ate the food they gave her.

"Yeah…" Conan responded as he crossed his arms. "That girl…Saika. There's something obviously suspicious of her."

"Can't argue with that." Heiji said before lying on his back, his hands behind his head as he stared at the ceiling. Haibara raised an eyebrow.

"Non-Official Cover…" Conan muttered as he held his chin. "She knew what that means."

"Oh yeah, this has been bothering me for a bit." Heiji suddenly interrupted, causing the small detective to look up with a curious expression. "How did you know that guy was CIA? Being a NOC doesn't necessarily mean they're a CIA Agent."

"Eh?" Conan tilted his head in confusion. "I said he was a CIA Agent?"

"What, are you saying you forgot?" Heiji groaned, holding his head in his palm.

"Urusai…" Conan grunted, crossing his arms. "I haven't been getting enough sleep, so I probably just jumped into conclusions."

"Well, that's not like you, Kudou-kun." Haibara said as she turned to him and smirked. "Did you dream of the flaming rainbow unicorns again?"

This time, he glared at the girl with half moon eyes as well as a blush on his face. "T-That was only once…" His eye twitched as he heard Heiji snickering behind his back. "Oi, you would be having nightmares of that too if you saw that damn video on the internet!" he hissed as he swung around and glared down the Osakan boy rubbing his tears out of his eyes as he laughed.

The young girl merely sighed. "At any rate, get out." She bluntly said, shooing the two boys out in the hallway. "I would like to get some work done instead of hearing you two constantly figuring this out." With that said, she closed the door and a 'click' was heard. The two boys looked at each other with confused looks before heading back.

As they entered the large room, they saw Saika lying on the couch, sleeping. It looked like she already washed her plates (apparently, she used another one to eat the cake she got from David). The sound of unlocking was heard as Agasa came in the door, only to stop as she saw Saika sleeping. As slowly and quietly as he could, he closed the door and hoped that he didn't disturb her. Seeing this as a cue, the two detectives let out a small sigh before leaving the large room and heading to the guest room to sleep. They can discuss today's topic in the morning.

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**There you have it. Srsly, this was rather hard to think of making XD; Apparently what I imagine in my head is rather difficult to put into words if I don't write it down at that instant. I'll post the next chapter in about 20 minutes just so you guys can read this one first |D**


	5. Chapter 5

**All right! Here's Chapter 5! God, 14 pages on the font I was typing on X_X this took only like 3-4 days I think |D hope you enjoy!**

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**You can't run…**

In an area where there was nothing but pure and utter darkness, a bone-chilling voice echoed in its depth. Conan stood in the middle of the area, frantically looking around. His face was as pale as a ghost and his eyes were wide with fear as he tried locating the voice.

**Kudou Shinichi…**

~Where is he?~ the boy thought as he searched.

**So long…**

His pupils shrank as he felt a cool, metallic object on his forehead. He was definitely sure it was a gun, but his attention was focused on the owner of the gun whose face was only mere inches away from the young boy's. A grin that could terrify paired with a glare to kill pierced through his entire body as he tried to back away.

~Run…~ He said to himself, but his body refused to move. ~Run, damn it, run!~

**Meitantei…**

The sound of a gunshot rang in the boy's mind. Instead of being engulfed in darkness and pain, he was greeted with the dim moonlight coming from the windows of the Detective Agency. Conan stood there, still frozen and terrified. Once he recovered from that, he looked around.

~Just a dream…~ he concluded and sighed heavily. ~This isn't good…they're becoming more frequent…Can't really sleep in this state. Guess I'll watch a little T.V. before I go back to sleep…~

The moment he turned around, he stopped. The atmosphere was heavy with something. Not only that, he could smell something he didn't noticed before due to his confusion…something that made his stomach drop.

Blood.

The smell of blood was so thick, he could hardly breathe. Fearing the worse, he quickly turned on his watch's flashlight function and scanned the floor. His thoughts raced in his mind, hoping that he wouldn't find anything and that he's just simply crazy. Soon, the light located something and he quickly turned the light back to it. Once he located the object, he froze. It was a hand.

"OCCHAN!" he shouted as he rushed to the fallen detective, keeping the watch steady as the body was illuminated in light. The young boy could see a pool of blood under the large man's body. "Get a hold of yourself, Occhan!" Conan vigorously shook Kogorou as he shouted, but got no response. He reached over and put his mall fingers on the man's neck before his eyes widened.

No pulse. Not only did Conan not feel a pulse, but the body was still warm. It meant that the detective was killed recently. However, if he was dead, then…

"Ran!" He cried before forcing the door open. Without stopping, Conan swung left and ran up the flight of stairs as fast as his short legs allowed him to. He rammed the door to the Mouri's apartment open and looked around. Concluding that no one was here, he searched the entire apartment. Ran's room, Occhan's room, bathroom, kitchen…

He stopped and gasped to catch his breath as the horrible truth dawned on him.

Ran wasn't here.

"Kuso…KUSO!" He shouted with all his might, gripping his head in utter anger. "It has to be them…Damn it all!" He shoved his hand into his pocket and fished out his cell phone. Opening the small device, he quickly pressed a series of numbers before holding the phone up to his ear.

~Pick up…~ He thought as he ran downstairs with his turbo skateboard. ~Pick up, please!~

**Ring…Ring…Ring…*click***

"Hakase!" Conan shouted before throwing his skateboard in front of him and started to ride it down the street. "Occhan's dead and Ran's missing! You have to get out of-"

"Hello, you have reached Agasa Hiroshi. I am unable to pick up the phone at this moment…"

The small detective's heart sank as the professor's answering machine answered his call instead. He ended the call in disgust and skateboarded as fast as he could to the professor's house. As he abandoned the skateboard in front of the house, he noticed the front door was wide open. Without a second to lose, Conan rushed inside the large house.

"Hakase!" He called out as he frantically searched around the large home. From the corner of his eye, he could a large, partially moving mass behind the couch and ran towards it. "Hakase!"

"Sh-Shinichi…" the old man managed to mutter as he tried to get up before falling back down. The boy tried to support the professor.

"Hakase, hang in there!" he said as Conan helped him to the couch. "What happened?"

"T-Them…It was them…" he managed to say before coughing and holding onto the bullet wound on his stomach. Immediately, Conan could tell the professor had more than that bullet wound to worry about.

"We need to get you to a doctor fast!" the boy said as he took out his cell phone.

Suddenly, Agasa grabbed a hold of Conan's shoulders and jerked the boy towards him. "F-Forget about me! They took Ai-kun and headed to your house!" He gasped before coughing again. "R-Ran-kun went to save her and…"

"WHAT?" Conan exclaimed, looking at the professor with terrified eyes. "Ran's still…..she's…."

"They're at your house, Shinichi!" Agasa shouted, shaking the boy out of his small trance. "Go! You have to save them!"

After staring at the elderly man for a few seconds, he took a deep, shaking breath. "…All right, Hakase." He finally said. "Don't worry. I'll come back to get you help as soon as I save them." With that said and done, he quickly spun around and ran out of Agasa's house.

As soon as he passed the gate, he took a sharp right and headed to the house next to the professors – his own home. He could already notice his gate was forced open and bit his lip as he rushed to the door. The lock was blown apart, leaving the door wide open. A shudder ran up his small body as he imagined **them** holding Ran and Haibara hostage before going inside.

Of course…none of the lights were on. He quickly rushed in and looked around, trying to think of where they are. If he could find them before they noticed he was here, he might have a chance of saving the two girls. As quickly yet quietly as he could, he walked up the stairs and walked towards the giant library that was in his house.

**BANG!**

He immediately froze in his tracks and knelt down as close to the ground as he could before he realize no one was shooting at him. However, he noticed the door to the library partially opened after the gunshot. From the small opening of the room, he could see a figure slouching down on the floor. As slowly and quietly as he was able to do with his constant quivering, he neared the library doors.

"Let her go!" the figure shouted as he rose back up. Conan's eyes widen as he recognized the voice belonging to Subaru. The only response was another gunshot sound, causing Subaru to fall back to the ground and next to the door.

"You're a rather annoying pest." A cold voice replied to him. The boy's body broke into a cold sweat as he neared the doors inch by miserable inch. He peeked between the two opened doors and froze as he saw Gin as well as Ran next to him, his gun up to her head. The poor girl looked absolutely terrified, which was understandable since she is being held hostage by a man who wouldn't even show mercy to a kid like Conan. However, her attention was focused on Subaru, who was lying right next to the door.

~Damn, this is bad…at this rate, he'll kill Ran!~ Conan thought, biting his lip. He put his hand around his watch as he stared at Gin. ~I only have one shot…let's hope this works…~

Subaru glanced at the door from the corner of his eye and saw Conan getting ready to do something. With the last of his strength, he struggled to get up, regardless of the unbearable pain in his shoulders. Gin could only narrow his eyes as Ran shouted, "Don't get up, Subaru-san! You'll just get more hurt!"

Subaru merely chuckled. "I can't just sit down and play dead while you yourself is in a dangerous position." He stated. In an instant, he grabbed one of the books that was on the floor (probably from a struggle earlier) and threw it at Gin. Surprised, he used his left hand to knock it away, only to have Subaru tackle him down and releasing his grip on Ran.

"S-Subaru-san!" Ran cried as the two men struggled with each other. Subaru made sure that his left hand was nailed onto the floor and the gun wasn't pointed at anyone in particular.

"Get away from here!" He shouted to Ran without turning around. "Run!"

"Ran!" Ran stiffened her body as he turned around, seeing Conan at the door. "Over here!"

"C-Conan-kun? How did you-"

**BANG!**

The two froze at the sudden sound. As much as Ran didn't want to, she slowly turned around. What she saw made her cover her mouth in horror

Subaru was on the floor, his body facing up as blood poured from his chest down to the rugged floor. The glare from his glasses made it impossible to see his expression, but Conan knew very well that he was dead. The bullet wound was at his heart, so it would have been a complete miracle if he was still alive.

"S-Subaru…..san…..?" Ran uttered his name, staring at the deceased man's corps with wide, terrified eyes. She took one step back, then two. As her body quivered in fear, she turned to the man responsible of killing him, who was slowly but surely walking towards her with a rather annoyed expression.

"Ran!" Conan shouted, snapping the girl out of her frozen state. "Nigeru! Hurry up and run!" He raised his left arm and aimed his wristwatch at Gin. With one click, the top came off and became cross-hairs to aim.

Ran turned and looked at Conan, who was getting ready to hit Gin with his tranquilizer. Shaking her head, she rushed over towards him in an attempt to escape. The moment she started running, Conan fired the tranquilizer dart from his watch to Gin.

To his dismay, the watch wouldn't shoot the dart. What happened next shattered any other ideas that he was trying to come up with.

**BANG!**

Another gunshot rang out and he had no chance of looking up and seeing what happened before he saw Ran falling onto the ground with a sickening "thud". Her eyes were dull with darkness and her body didn't move. Conan just stared in dismay and absolute horror as he saw her like this."R….." He tried to talk, but it felt like there was a lump in his throat that made it impossible to speak. His body shuddered as he could hear Gin's footsteps coming closer and closer, but he didn't care. Clenching his shaking hands and gritting his teeth, the only thing Conan could do was cry out in despair.

**"!"**

He flipped his eyes open and widen with fear as he jerked up from the makeshift bed he was in. Cold sweat streamed down his face as he attempted to calm himself down. He looked around, noticing that he was in the guest room of the professor's house. Seeming as how he heard no one talking, he assumed Heiji was already awake. After managing to calm himself down, he could hear a rush of footsteps coming from outside the room and immediately stiffened up, afraid his dream would come somewhat true. The door swung open and….

"Conan-kun, what's wrong?" Ran cried as she rushed over to the young detective.

"Uhhh….ummm…." The boy didn't know how to reply, confused as to why Ran was here. "R-Ran-neechan, why are you here?"

"Did you forget?" Ran said as he put her hand on his forehead, causing a red tint to appear on his face. "I told you I would be here in the morning to pick you up. We have school today." She took her hand off his head and gave him a plastic bag. "Here's your stuff. It doesn't look like you have a fever, but if you don't want to school…"

"Ahh, no. I'm ok, Ran-neechan." He said cheerfully with a smile. "I'll be ready in a few minutes."

"All right, I better get to school, then." The girl said as she stood up. "Your friends are waiting with Agasa-hakase. Ja ne." With that said and done, she waved at him and left the room.

After staring at the closed door, he sighed as he forced his tired body to get up and started to change into his clothes. Grabbing his backpack, he got out of his room and went upstairs.

"Ah! He's awake!" a girl's voice rang out as Conan got to the top of the flight of stairs. He was greeted by a group rush of his elementary school friends that consisted of a large boy, a skinny boy with freckles, and a small girl. "Ohayo, Conan-kun!"

"Ahh…Ohayo Ayumi, Mitsuhiko, Genta." Conan said.

"Do you know how long we were waiting?" Genta suddenly shouted, obviously not pleased to see the boy awake.

"We better hurry if we don't want to be late!" Mitsuhiko said, looking at his watch with a worried look.

"If you guys want, I'll drive you there." Agasa suggested, getting a cheer from the three children as a response. Conan could only laugh to himself as Haibara walked up next to him.

"Oh, that reminds me." He muttered to himself before turning to Agasa. "Where's Saika-san? Did she already leave?"

"She did." The professor replied. "Apparently, she got a call about her job, so she left early to go prepare."

"Oh? I thought I could talk to her before she left…" he pouted. "At any rate, we better hurry or we'll be late." With another cheer from the group, they all got into Agasa's car and were on their way to school.

"Ohayo, Kobayashi-sensai!" Ayumi said cheerfully as they entered the class room only a few minutes before class began.

"Ohayo, minna." Kobayashi said with a smile. "You're unusually late. You're always the first ones to come to class."

"It's all Conan's fault!" Genta suddenly said as Conan let out a yawn. "He decided to oversleep today!"

"Genta, we could have just came to school and waited for him instead of going over to pick him up." Mitsuhiko said.

"At any rate, take your seats, you guys." The teacher said, clapping her hands together. "I have a surprise to show you all." All the children looked at each other and erupted in a mass of whispers.

"A surprise? I wonder what it is?"

"Are we having another new kid coming here?"

"Maybe we're watching a Kamen Yaiba movie!"

"All right, you can come in now." Kobayashi said loudly as she looked at the open door. A young woman walked in the classroom, causing the children to go silent. All of a sudden, Conan burst out laughing.

"Conan-kun!" Kobayashi said, putting her hands on her hips. "That's very rude! What is so funny!"

"G-Gomen, Sensei," He managed to say as he tried to calm himself down. "b-but that girl…"

"Oh, it's you again." The girl intervened. All eyes focused on her as she went from the sweet and happy looking girl to a rather frightening girl who had glares to kill. "Go ahead, laugh all you want." She grunted with a roll of her eyes.

"Oh, you two met before?" Kobayashi said, looking at the girl then to Conan then back to the girl.

"Ne, Conan-kun," Ayumi whispered as soon as she saw that Conan gotten over his laughing fit. "Who is that lady?"

"All right, minna!" Kobayashi said. "I would like to introduce you to Matsuni Saika. She'll be working with me as your assistant English teacher."

"Nice to meet you." She said kindly, smiling and bowing to the children. Conan resisted the urge to laugh again.

The reason why he thought it was funny was because when they first met her, she looked like a guy. Now, she didn't have her hat and jacket, looking more feminine. Not only that, she was acting NICE and KIND almost like how Ran acts most of the time, which was something he didn't witness the day before.

"Konnichiwa!" the room was erupted with children greeting their new sensei.

"Now then, let's get started with class." Kobayashi said. "Now class…."

* * *

Soon, school was over and the group were standing at the school gates, talking.

"Matsuni-sensei is really, really nice!" Ayumi cheerfully said to the others.

"I can't believe she was from America." Mitsuhiko replied. "I have a lot of question I want to ask her about it."

"Not to mention the cookies she brought in were really good!" Genta exclaimed as he ate one of said cookies.

~This is so unnatural…~ Conan thought, staring at his friends with half-moon eyes. ~She goes from mysterious and suspicious to friendly and loveable…~

"It's too bad Ai-chan had to leave early." Ayumi muttered, looking at the ground.

"Yeah, she looked really sick today." Mitsuhiko said.

"At any rate, I'll see you guys later." Conan said as he started walking away.

"Ehhhh? Where are you going, Conan-kun?" Ayumi whined as she saw her friend walking away.

"I need to meet someone." The boy replied with a sheepish smile. "Sorry about that."

"Oi, Conan! Don't forget we're going to meet up at Hakase's house tomorrow to work on our English project!" GEnta shouted at the small boy.

"Hai, hai…" Conan said before turning around and walking away from the group. He knew full well what he was going to do: Speak with David Raines about his father being a CIA agent.

After about 10 minutes, he could see the tracks of one of the roller coasters from Tropical Land, meaning he was nearing his destination. As he turned the corner, he saw a familiar figure entering the restaurant.

"Sasaki-san!" Conan cried out as he ran up to the woman. She paused and turn towards him before smiling.

"Ah…you're the boy from yesterday. Conan-kun, right?" The boy nodded. "Thank you so much for your help yesterday." Sasaki said as she bowed.

"It was nothing!" Conan replied cheekily as he put his hands behind his head.

Sasaki kneeled down to his height. "Why are you back here so soon?" she asked kindly. "Did you forget something?"

The small boy shook his head. "I was hoping to talk to David-san about something." He simply stated. "Is he busy?"

"Well…he's meeting with someone else right now," Sasaki said as she stood up and turned to the doors, "but we can check if he's able to meet you right now."

"Arigatou!" He chirped happily as they entered the restaurant. They walked into the kitchen and stopped in front of the soundproof room. Sasaki pressed a button on panel next to the door. Since the entire room was soundproof, it would only make sense that the door was soundproof as well. Thus, he believed what Sasaki was going to use was a speaker to communicate inside the soundproof room.

"David," she said, concluding Conan's idea that it was a speaker. "Conan-kun came over to talk to you about something. He's the little boy from yesterday. Are you able to talk?" She released the button after her last sentence and they both waited for a response.

Suddenly, a 'click' was heard and the door opened, revealing a rather confused David. He looked down and saw Conan smiling an innocent and begging smile.

"You wanted to talk to me, Conan-kun?" he said as the boy nodded. "Gomen nasai, but I'm in the middle of som-"

"Oh! Cool Kid!" Someone exclaimed (in a rather poor American accent) from behind David as an American woman popped up from behind him. She had short blond hair that didn't go past her neck and glasses over her blue eyes. She leaned past David and stared at Conan with a smile.

"J-Jodie-sensei?" The boy was completely taken aback to the presence of the woman, taking a step back as he sweat dropped. "W-What are you doing here?"

"You know him?" David said to Jodie in English as he turned his head to her.

"Oh yes!" she exclaimed again. "I used to teach at Mouri Ran's school, so I seen him a few times whenever I see her. Why don't you let him in our little conversation? He'll be a great help!"

"Jodie, we shouldn't involve civilians…" David muttered as he turned to her and they started talking in fast English that not even Conan could completely pick up. After a bit, David sighed. "All right, all right…if you say so." He moved out of the way for Conan to come in, who gladly accepted the offer.

"David, I'll come by later to bring you guys something to drink, all right?" Sasaki said to her fiancé.

"All right. Thank's, Sasaki." He said, giving her a small kiss on the cheek before closing the door and heading over to the area with seats. Sitting down, he looked at Conan. "So? What did you want to talk about?"

"It's about you and your father." Conan stated, going from his childish cover to his normal tone. "If he was a CIA agent and you had knowledge of it, it would make sense that you're a CIA agent as well."

"…" David narrowed his eyes as he looked at Conan and raised his hands. "Before I answer that question, I would like for you to answer my own. How did you know my dad was a CIA agent to begin with?"

"Ah, that would be me." Jodie said, dropping her fake English/Japanese accent and talking normally. "A CIA agent that the FBI has contacts with told us about you so I told Conan-kun about it."

"That still doesn't make sense." David snapped, glaring at Jodie. "He was surprised to hear that he was a NOC and concluded he was a CIA agent, which makes no sense!"

"Um…" The two Americans turned to Conan. His face was a bit red with embarrassment as he rubbed the back of his head. "I sort of…panicked. I've had nightmares about…." He fell silent and glanced at Jodie. He wasn't so sure if it was all right to talk about them if David wasn't involved.

"Don't worry, he knows." Jodie said to Conan. "Actually, he's an FBI agent like us. He'll be helping us with them."

"Wait, are you saying he's connected to them?" David exclaimed in English, his eyes wide with shock. "He's in danger! We need to put him under our prote-"

"If you do that, then the Black Organization will know he's involved!" Jodie shouted back in English. "Right now, he's our strongest lead with dealing with them."

"If you say so, Jodie…" he muttered, glancing at Conan.

"Jodie-sensei, you never really explained why you're here." Conan interrupted, putting his hands behind his head with a rather bored expression on his face.

"I heard that David's father was murdered. That's why I'm here." Jodie stated. "After a bit of interrogation, we determined the killer was with the Organization."

"WHAT?" The boy suddenly exclaimed, swinging around with wide eyes.

"Don't get your hopes up, boiya." David grumbled, holding his head up with his hand. "The damn bitch committed suicide somehow."

Conan blinked, surprised to hear such language from David. It was understandable, though. His father was killed by her.

"At any rate…" Jodie said, clapping her hands together. It was obvious she was trying to change the topic. "Did you see the news today, Conan-kun? The serial killer's on the move again."

"Serial killer?" Conan repeated. This was the first time he heard about it.

"Calls himself 'Joker'." David said before grabbing a newspaper that was next to him and placed it on the table. The main article was titled "Joker strikes again! President of Akayo Co. murdered." Conan scanned the article with stern eyes.

"This 'Joker' has been around for quite a while." Jodie said, holding her chin. "However, he's been recently active with murdering. Before, he would steal items or help the police find evidence of a scandal."

"Almost like Kaitou Kid, but without the good guy routine." Conan muttered as he sat down, his thoughts in deep thoughts. He blinked, then looked at David. "Ahh…I just remembered something I wanted to talk to you about besides your father."

David tilted is head slightly. "Really? Well out with it!" he encouraged.

"It's about Matsuni Saika." The little detective stated. "Why did she take your father's gun and claim it was hers? I'm still confused about that."

David closed his eyes and thought deeply, before opening them and shrugging. "Sorry, I'm in the dark as well." He simply said. "It just means we'll have to keep a close eye on her."

"Still…There's something off about her than just the gun…" Conan muttered to himself.

Suddenly, a loud ringing sound echoed in the room. The two FBI agents looked at the small boy, who was fumbling for his phone. After making sure he didn't drop it, he opened it up and pressed the button to accept the call.

"H-Hello?" He replied as he got the phone up to his ear.

"Conan-kun!"

At that moment, the boy froze, a shiver running through his spine before he face palmed himself. "R-Ran-neechan, is there something wrong?" Oh, he knew what was wrong. Little boy leaves school. Little boy doesn't come back to Detective Agency. Yeah, he was pretty much screwed.

"Of course there's something wrong!" Ran yelled, causing Conan to move the phone away from his ear. "You never came back from school! You didn't even give me a call saying you weren't going to come home yet!"

"Go-Gomen, Ran-neechan." He childishly said, sweat dropping. He could have sworn he heard Jodie snickering behind him. "I'll come home right now."

"Good." Ran let out a small sigh. "Honestly, you make me worry sometimes, Conan-kun. Hurry up. Dinner's almost ready."

"Haiiii!" With that said and done, he hangs up the phone and sighs. He turns to Jodie and David. "Sorry…looks like I got to go."

"No worries." David said, raising a hand. "You better hurry along. We can talk more about this later."

"We'll call you if anything comes up!" Jodie called out as Conan left the room. He thanked Sasaki as she went past him and hurried out of the restaurant, desperately trying to get back to the agency in less than 5 minutes.

* * *

Conan let out a sigh as he buried his face into his pillow. First, he gets the horrible nightmare, then he finds out Saika is their technical English teacher. Not only that, he finds out David is an FBI agent and the whole business about the 'Joker' as well as getting an earful of a lecture from Ran.

~Damn. Things keep on getting worse and worse…~ he thought as he turned over and glared at the ceiling. ~We need more information about those bastards…we need to get them!~ His vision grew darker as his heavy eyelids were forcing themselves to close. ~I'll…I'll ask Haibara for the temporary antidote tomorrow…just so I can relax and be Shinichi again…~ With that last thought, he fell into slumber.

* * *

**I am such an ass for pulling off that double dream, aren't I? :D now if only I could animate, that would actually scare the crap out of people…err, I mean….*coughs* ANYWAYS! Yeah, I kind of noticed while watching some episodes that NOC does not necessarily mean CIA |D; so I kind of pulled this out of my brain dead head. Hope you enjoyed these two chapters. I'll get the next one posted as soon as possible and NOT in 3-4 months! XD**


	6. Chapter 6

**Here's the next chapter! :U this one was rather a bitch to pull off since I decided to use A LOT of characters AND make a Kaito-nothing…X_X asdfasdfasdf Hope you all enjoy!**

* * *

"Oi, Conan! Get up already!"

The small boy groaned in response, pulling his blanket over his head. However, he was unable to go back to sleep and eventually surrendered to reality as he sat up and stretched. With a big yawn, he got up and made his way to the main room, the food on the table and Kogorou already eating. His tired eyes became more awake as he looked around, finding something missing.

"Ne, where's Ran?" He asked as he sat down and picked up the chopsticks.

"She's on a field trip or something." The old man could only mumble as he continued to eat. "Said she won't be back until late Sunday."

"Is that so?" Conan muttered before he started eating himself. "What are you going to do?"

"Hmph! Do I have to tell you every little thing?" He said with an irritated tone. "If you must know, I'm stuck babysitting you until she comes back!"

The boy blinked before he face palmed himself. ~Of course…how could I forget?~ he thought as he recalled last night's talk.

* * *

"Conan-kun!" called a rather angry girl as the boy arrived in the Detective Agency. She stood in front of him and crossed her arms. "Where have you been?"

"R-Ran-neechan…" He sweat dropped as he saw her angered state and took a step back. "I went to talk to David-san."

"Then why didn't you call saying you'll be late?" She insisted, glaring the small boy down. "Honestly, it's only been two days and you've been running around into things you shouldn't!"

"Gomen…" Conan apologized as he held his head down and stared at the floor. He was hoping this reaction and tone would keep him from getting in more trouble than he was at the moment.

"Jeez…" Ran huffed. "I can't believe I'm saying this…but you're not allowed to go ANYWHERE without my consent until next week."

"In other words, I'm grounded." He grunted to himself.

"In the meantime, it's getting late." She uncrossed her arms and outstretched one of her arms, pointing to the bathroom. "Go brush your teeth and go to bed."

"Hai…" He replied meekly and walked off.

* * *

~Jeez….It's Thursday. That's still four days away.~ He thought before he finished his meal. Kogorou grabbed his empty plates and put them in the sink before he dressed himself.

"Don't even think of doing any funny business, brat." He hissed as he straightens his tie. "Ran already told me you're grounded until she comes back. Come on, we're heading out."

"Huh?" Conan perked up a bit. "Where are we going?"

"Well, I'M going to a police conference." Kogorou stressed as he was looking for his jacket. "Megure-keibu asked me to come due to the case about the Joker. Since it's impossible for me to trap you in here, I have no choice but to drag you with me…" He successfully finds his jacket and starts putting it on. "I called your teacher so you'll be missing school today and tomorrow. Hurry up and get dressed."

This helped lighten his mood. "Hai!" He quickly agreed and rushed back to his room. Getting dressed and grabbing his gadgets, he quickly ran out the room as the detective was opening the door.

* * *

"Make sure you behave…" Kogorou grunted as he and Conan were walking down the halls of the police department before stopping in front of a double door.

"Haiiii!" He chirped with a huge smile as the detective opened the door. They both went inside to see a group of people sitting in the room, muttering words to each other. One of the glanced up, causing the others to turn around as he stood up and walked over to them.

"Mouri-kun!" Megure exclaimed as he stopped in front of the taller detective. His happy expression soon faded away into him staring with half moon eyes as he paused and looked down to his right, seeing a grinning Conan. "Why is Conan-kun here…? I thought this was supposed to be a confidential meeting…"

"Ah…well…you see…" Kogorou struggled as he rubbed the back of his head as he sweat dropped. "Ran's on a field trip and I couldn't leave this little brat behind so I had to bring him along…"

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone!" He happily said as Megure face palmed.

"All right…come over here, you two." He motioned as the three went over to the large table. As they sat down, Conan recognized the people in the room. There was Sato, Takagi, Shiratori as well as…

"Nakamori-keibu and Yamato-keibu? Why are you two here?" Kogorou asked, bringing Conan's own question to light.

"That damn Joker's been interfering with the Kid heists now!" Nakamori shouted, slamming his hand on the table. "He's been involved in three heists so far, whether he's killing someone or attemping to steal the jewels Kid was planning to steal!" He let out a huff as he sat back down, crossing his arms as he leaned back. "So far, he's tried stealing in two heists and recently killed Ayako a few days ago during the third heist he was involved in."

"As for me, he's been screwing around the Nagano district." Yamato growled. "It's mostly stealing and scandal revealing, though. Haven't had any trouble with him murdering anyone as of yet, but it's only a matter of time!"

"It also seems the Joker's been in Osaka as well." Megure stated. "However, Otaki-keibu is unable to come due to another case."

"What's his goal…?" Satou muttered as she rested her chin on her hand. "Why is the Joker doing this?"

"Hopefully, we'll find out here and now." Shiratori said. He dug into his breast pocket and pulled out two pictures, placing them on the table. One picture had someone in a checker design jumpsuit. Their face is covered with a mask similar to the Night Baron and had a jester's hat on them with four points instead of three. The other picture had a playing card stained in blood on it – the Ace of Spades. "The first picture is the only photo we've managed to get of the Joker. The other one is the Joker's notice he left behind."

Conan leaned over the table to get a better look of the pictures. He narrowed his eyes at the picture of the Joker, then to the ace.

"According form eyewitness reports…" Takagi suddenly said as he opened his notebook. "…the colors on the Joker's clothing and the card he leaves behind correspond to the type of crime he commits. For example, we have concluded that the color red means he's going to kill someone and he leaves behind a spade."

"He has blue and the Ace of Diamonds when he steals money or valuables…" Yamato muttered, focused on the pictures.

"I've seen that bastard tossing out an Ace of Clubs when he escapes from a Kid heist, but we don't know if he killed anything or stolen anything during the heist." Nakamori grumbled with his arms crossed. "As for colors, I think it's just the black and white checkerboard patterns."

"There are also people who have heard the Joker speak." Satou said as she pulled out a small recorder. "However, this is most likely the work of a voice manipulator. The Joker speaks in the voice of a little girl or a man." She presses the 'play' button on the recorder and it starts to play back the audio recorded on it. It stayed silent for a few seconds before, suddenly, a little girl's laughter could be heard. A small shiver went up Conan's small body as well as everyone else's.

**"What's wrong, Deiko-san?" **the childish voice said innocently.** "You look so terrified."**

**"S-Stay back!" **Another voice replied.** "W-what do you want?"**

**"You've been a very bad man, Deiko-san."** A 'click' could be heard.** "I'm here to finish the job. Heeheehee."**

**"P-Please! Spare my life!" **the man pleaded.** "I'll…I'll tell you everything!"**

**"Hmmm…." **Silence lingered on for about 10 seconds before the sound of a gunshot resonated followed by a man's cry of pain, causing a few people to flinch.** "Oopsies. My finger seemed to slip. So sorry, Deiko-san." **The voice said as Deiko was moaning and groaning. "**I'm afraid you have no chance of living now. It was nice knowing you. Bye bye~~~~."**A second gun rang out and there was nothing but silence before it followed with static. Satou pressed the 'stop' button.

"This was recorded from a hidden microphone Hikumaru Deiko's wife put in his office to keep track of what he was doing." Takagi stated. "He had a history of doing shady dealings and his wife was being cautious he didn't make a wrong move."

"Looks like he screwed up, then…" Yamato grunted.

"…It just…so wrong…" Takagi said softly. "To hear a child's voice like this."

"This one was taken just recently." Satou explained as she fast forwarded the recording before stopping it. "It was when Ayako Kitsu was murdered a few days ago." She pressed the 'play' button on the recorder once again. This time, instead of a pause of silence or the childish laughter like the first one had, they immediately heard the start of the conversation.

**"Ayako…"** said the voice. At that moment, Conan froze. His eyes were widen with absolute fear as his small body trembled, breaking out into a cold sweat. While Kogorou and Nakamori were focusing on the recording, the rest of the officers noticed his strange reaction.

~G…..Gin….~ He thought immediately as he clenches his hands into fists. ~That voice…is definitely Gin's! But…~ He glanced at the photo again. ~The Joker's body structure is too narrow and small for it to be Gin. Could…could the Joker related to the Black Organization?~

**"Hmph…I can't believe you're talking in HIS voice…"** a feminine voice replied in a hiss. **"What do you want? I gave you all the information I had."**

"**That the problem, Ayako."** Suddenly, multiple crashes and bangs could be heard. **"Since you already gave us the information, your role is done."**

**"W-What?"** she exclaimed. **"Y-You lied! You promised me you wouldn't kill me if I told you!"**

**"Funny…I seem to have a bad memory of things…such as that promise you say I made."** The sound of something like a vase breaking was heard, along with Ayako's yelp of terror. **"Regardless of that promise, it doesn't matter. I overheard your conversation earlier."**

**"C-Conversa-"** She gasped. **"You wire tapped my phone?"**

**"Of course. Now then…"** A familiar 'click' could be heard. **"Would you kindly die for us?"** With no time to response, the sound of a gunshot echoed in the recorder along with the 'thump' of what is assumed to be Ayako's body. Soon, static followed once again and Satou turned off the recorder.

"Looks like we got ourselves a trickster." Nakamori concluded before leaning back on his chair. "Don't know why he does that and I don't give a damn! I just want that guy in cuffs for interfering with my chase with Kid!"

"He said 'us'…" Yamato stated as he narrowed his eyes. "Looks like the Joker's not alone. That's just perfect."

"Has there been any news of the Joker striking again?" Kogorou asked.

"There has, in fact." Megure said as he pulled out a newspaper. "Seems like Kid has taken a liking to the treasure Suzuki Jiirochi just recently found: the Malevolent Fox. It's a statue of a fox with three tails encased in a glass prism. Around the statue are bits of amethyst to make it look like souls. It's also been known to bring bad luck to the person whose name is written on a piece of paper in front of it." He placed the newspaper on the table for everyone to see. "The Joker's coming along as well, according to this."

On the newspaper that Megure laid out, there was an article about the next Kid heist as well as another article detailing about the Joker right under it. In the picture of the Kid heist article was a noticeable notice that drew Conan and Nakamori's attention to it.

The notice itself had 10 playing cards: five on the top facing up and five on the bottom facing down. The five on the top had the three of Spades, ace of Clubs, five of Diamonds, and a King and Queen Card (with the words "KING" and "QUEEN" written out on the top of the cards): their corners were cut so that the type of card could not be determined (Here's a visual of the cards: .) The five on the bottom had numbers written on them: 4, 1, 2, 3, 5. In the middle of these two sets, Kid's notice was written with his signature drawing.

_**Congratulations!**_

_**Today is your birthday! However, it breaks my heart that I cannot get you a present. Instead, at the strike of darkness, I shall swipe the mischievous fox and rid of your misfortunes. I wish you an eventful birthday, my friend!**_

_** ~Kaitou Kid **_

In the other article, there was a response to Kaitou Kid's notice from the Joker.

_**1412-san,**_

_**It seems that you have taken a liking to my prize. However, I won't allow you to steal it this time. I may not be able to take your life without causing a complete riot, so why don't I take the "birthday boy" off your magical, little hands? I can't WAIT to play with you.**_

_** ~Joker**_

"NANI?" Nakamori shouted as he slammed both of his hands on the table, standing up from his seat. "He's going to interfere with ANOTHER Kid heist?"

"It mentions 'birthday boy'…"Satou muttered. "Who is he talking about?"

"Birthday?" Kogorou muttered as he read over the contents. "Kid's going to steal the fox on someone's birthday?"

"Not only that, it says 'strike of darkness'…" Satou crossed her arms. "It's most likely indicating nighttime."

Conan blinked before glaring at the picture. ~That little prick…~ He thought.

"Is something wrong, Conan-kun?" Megure asked. Soon, all eyes were on him, causing him to sweat drop.

"It's just that…I think he's going to steal it on May 4th." He managed to say before laughing sheepishly.

"May 4th?" Kogorou repeated before grabbing the boy off his shoulder and holding him up in front of the detective's face. "What do you mean he's going to steal the fox on May 4th?"

"It's the cards." He said, waving his finger at the notice as Kogorou's eyes followed. "The ones on the bottom are from one to five, while the ones on the top don't really line up other than lowest to highest." He forced himself free of the old man's grasp and pointed to the top cards. "I'm sure that the bottom is telling us to order the top cards from one to five."

"Hmm…" Shiratori took the picture and ripped it so that the 10 cards were apart, making sure to keep the bottom and top ones connected. He arranged the cards so that it was the Ace of Clubs, Five of Diamonds, King, Three of Spades, and Queen. He leaned back and crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow. "I still don't understand the connection." He bluntly said.

"Think of it this way." Conan pointed to the Ace of Clubs. "The numbers on the cards represent what letter the type of card is shown. For instance, ace is one: the first letter in Clubs."

"I see!" Takagi exclaimed. "These five cards will spell out the name!"

"But these two cards…" Nakamori muttered as he pointed to the King and Queen. "The corners are cut. We don't know what type of cards they are."

"Most likely means to focus on what the card is rather than what type since he was so generous enough to spell out the cards." Yamato said as he leaned over and pointed to the two cards. "Take a good look at these cards. If you look close enough, you can see something unusual."

Nakamori raised his eyebrow before grabbing the picture and taking a good, long stare at it. After glaring holes through the picture, he let out a huff as he drops the picture. "I don't see anything special about it."

"A-re-re?" Conan playfully sang as he leaned over the table. "Shiratori-kun, you've been really quiet. Is something wrong?"

"Something's been bothering me." Shiratori said as he turned to Takagi, who jumped a little at the sudden look. "Takagi-kun, do you have any playing cards with you, by any chance?"

"A-Ah…" Takagi blinked a few times as he let Shiratori's question process in his mind. "Y-yeah, I happen to have a deck with me."

"Could I see a king and queen card, then?" Shiratori asked, his gaze lacking of hesitation. A shiver went up Takagi's body before he nodded and dug into his pocket. He pulled out a deck and looked through it before handing Shiratori the two cards.

He gladly accepted the card and placed them down, glancing at the cards, then at the picture. Kogorou did the exact same thing before his eyes widened.

"T-The cards!" He shouted. "They're not the same!"

"Nani?" Megure said as he took the King of Spades and the picture. As he compares the two, his eyes widen as well.

"Looks like our little thief has some tricks with digital editing." Yamato said before standing up and walking around with his crutch. "The blue and white pattern on the two cards' outfits are connected by another one, forming a rather interesting 'N'. Thus…" He stops walking and turns to Conan. "If what the brat says is right, then it means he's the star of the show." (Another visual: .)

Taking Conan and Yamato's words, Shiratori wrote down the following:

**Ace of Clubs = 1****st**** letter in Clubs = C**

** Five of Diamonds = 5****th**** letter in Diamonds = O**

** King = N**

** Three of Spades = 3****rd**** letter in Spades = A**

** Queen = N**

** C-O-N-A-N. **

"Conan!" Satou exclaimed as she read the notes Shiratori wrote down.

"Now that I think about it…" Kogorou mumbled as he looked up at the ceiling, trying to remember. "Ran did mention about that brat's birthday being on May 4th…"

Conan just let out a flat, mental chuckle. ~That girl…that was the only reason I remembered about my birthday…~

"Then that determines the date…What about the time?" Megure questioned, crossing his arms.

"We've already confirmed the time." Nakamori said as he closed his eyes, chuckling. In an instant, he opened his eyes and pointed at Kogorou, who jerked back with wide eyes at the swift, sudden action. "The thief is going to strike at 7 P.M.!"

"T…..That…" Kogorou stammered before glaring at Nakamori's finger. He grabs the officer's hand and drags him closer to the detective as he was the one is doing the glaring. "That's ridiculous! Just HOW did you find out the time?"

"Heh…" Kogorou raised his eyebrow as Nakamori started laughing up a storm. Jerking his hand away from the old man, Nakamori straightened his tie, trying to look dignified. "'The strike of darkness means the time after sunset. Sunset's at 6:45 P.M.! So, that means he'll definitely come at 7!"

"T-Teme…." Soon, Kogorou and Nakamori had a glaring contest while Conan could only face palm.

"Jotto matte." Shiratori suddenly said, causing the two men to stop their glaring and turned to him. "If all this information is correct, then we need to protect Conan-kun. The Joker specifically said he was going to take the 'birthday boy'."

"Hmph!" Yamato started pacing around. "The kid probably doesn't need our protection."

"Regardless, we should be there to help him." Satou insisted, glaring at Yamato, who merely grunted in response and turned his back to the female officer.

"At any rate, we got the necessary information to intercept both Kaitou Kid and the Joker." Megure said as he stood up. "Hopefully, we'll stop the Joker before he has the chance of getting Conan-kun AND the Fox." He turns to the detective. "I appreciate for you coming on such short notice, Mouri-kun."

With that said and done, the meeting dispersed and the people began to leave the room. As Kogorou and Conan were leaving, a hand reached out and grabbed the detective's shoulder, causing him to stop and turned his head around to see Satou.

"Mouri-san," she said before taking her hand off his shoulder as the detective turned his entire body around to face her. "Would it be all right if we could borrow Conan-kun for a moment? We need to ask him a few questions about the case he was involved with Ran a few days ago." Before he could reply, she put her hands together and a sheepish smile. "We don't know how long it'll take so we'll need him for quite a while."

Kogorou raised his eyebrow before letting out a sigh. "I don't mind. As for you…" he glanced to the side and swiftly grabbed Conan, holding him up again. "YOU BETTER COME BACK BEFORE DINNER!"

"H-Hai…" he said meekly as the old man put him down and left.

"Well then…" Satou crossed her arms. "We should get a bite to eat before we ask you about that case, Conan-kun. Is that all right?"

"Un!" Conan chirped. "Is it all right if we go to David-san and Sasaki-san's restaurant, Satou-keiji?"

"That's impossible right now." Takagi suddenly said as he walked up to the two. He closes the cell phone in his right hand before putting it in his pocket. "I was calling them asking if we could come over since we needed to ask them some questions, but it seems like they're out."

"Ehhh?" Satou exclaimed before crossing her arms and pouting. "Drat! I was hoping to get some food from them, too."

"W-Well, we could always go somewhere else…" Takagi attempted to convince her, only to receive the cold shoulder.

* * *

Soon, they decided on a simple café that was close to the restaurant. As the group settled down, they had two coffees for the officers and an orange soda for Conan as well as a small plate of various sweets and delicacies they ordered. Satou sipped a little of her coffee before placing it back on its saucer.

"All right, we might as well get this over with as we eat." Satou said before she nudged Takaji, causing him to slightly choke on his coffee. He cleared his throat as he pulls out his police notebook, getting ready to write down the conversation and important notes.

"I don't see why this is necessary." Conan bluntly said as he stared out the window with a lazy look, sipping his soda. He seemed to be sulking due to the fact they were unable to go to the restaurant. "Ran-neechan and I already told you all we knew about the case."

"Yes, yes, we know." Satou said. "However…" she took her bag and opened it, digging inside before pulling out a plastic bag. Conan glanced over and blinked as she held up the plastic bag. "It's about this."

"The victim's revolver?" Conan questioned as he sat up straight, placing his drink on the table and took the plastic bag from Satou's hand.

"We tested the gun and examined it more thoroughly after the case ended." Takagi said as he flipped through his notes. "What Saika-san said about the gun being on her when the drink was spilled is true. …but…" He glanced up to see if Conan was listening and saw the boy opening the barrel of the gun through the bag. He watched as Conan's expression turned into a shocked one.

~W-What?~ He thought as he looked at the inside of the barrel. Since the police had to examine it, the three remaining bullets were out of the gun and in the bottom of the bag, allowing the boy to see the inside of the barrel. He noticed that three of the bullet holes were stained with coffee while the other three were clean.

"Takagi-keiji." He suddenly said. "There weren't any coffee stains in the bullet holes that had the bullets still in them, right?"

"Hai." Takagi said. "There's one less bullet in the gun since you accidentally fired it that time…but that doesn't explain a third bullet hole being stained with coffee."

* * *

**RECAP!**

**1 bullet was used to kill the victim the following day.**

**1 bullet was accidentally fired off by Conan when Satou attempted to obtain the revolver back.**

**1 bullet's location is unknown.**

**When the coffee spilled on Saika, the gun was stained. However, there were 4 bullets in the gun at the time since the third bullet was fired off accidentally.**

**END RECAP!**

* * *

"So when Saika was stained with the coffee along with the gun…"Conan muttered.

"…There were originally three bullets left in the gun." Satou finished. "This is what was bothering me and I was hoping you'd help us figure it out." She reached over and took a small cookie off the plate. "With the case technically closed, we're not at liberty to open it back up without a good reason."

"Not only that…" Takagi reached into his breast pocket and pulled out another bag with two bullets in it. "We compared the bullet used to kill the victim with the bullet you accidentally fired off as well as the ones left inside the gun." He placed it on the table. "The bullet from the victim's body as well as the stray bullet you fired off are real, but 2 of the 3 bullets left in the gun are hollow and they open up."

"Nani?" Conan narrowed his eyes as he looked at the gun, then to the two bullets. Indeed, two of the bullets' backs were cut off and inside the actual bullet was a small, hollow space. ~Tch…this case is getting more confusing by the second.~ "Most likely, these bullets were used to store something…information probably." He muttered. "It would make the most sense, given that he's a part of the CIA."

"It's either that someone was trying to pass information to the victim or he was trying to pass information to someone else." Satou deduced as Takagi face palmed.

"Dame da…" He groaned as he straightened himself up. "We still don't have a lead." He flipped the pages of his notebook as he narrowed his eyes. "The question is…what does Saika-san have to do with this case? With the gun in her possession as well as her statement of the gun being hers, she HAS to be connected to the victim in some way."

"Right now, she's the most suspicious person we can pinpoint." Satou crossed her arms as she leaned back on her chair. "We were hoping you could get something out of her, Conan-kun, since she's your Assistant English Teacher."

Conan let out a grunt as Takagi took the plastic bag with the revolver back. "I'll see if I can get anything, but I can't make any promises."

"Arigatou!" Satou chirped with a smile. "And of course, we'll tell you anything we find out in return!"

* * *

After about 10 minutes passed, Takagi pulled up his car in front of the Detective Agency. Conan hopped out of the car and closed the door. He waved good-bye to the two officers as Takagi drove off, disappearing around the corner. With a heavy sigh, Conan turned around and made his way to the stairs.

"Damn…I was hoping to get something that could help me…" he muttered to himself.

As he walked up the stairs, he noticed someone in front of the door to the agency. The man seemed to notice him and turned in the boy's direction.

The man looked roughly around 20. He wore a black collared shirt under his dark blue jacket paired with matching dark blue pants and black dress shoes. His messy brown hair moved out of the way as he turned, revealing his brown eyes that Conan nearly mistaken as red. He also noticed dark circles under the man's eyes, indicating he didn't have enough sleep. Seeing as how the man did not speak, Conan decided to make a move.

"Is there something wrong, Nii-san?" He asked innocently as he finally got up to the man and put his hands behind his head. "Do you need to speak with Kogorou-ojiisan?"

The man blinked as he looked at Conan. "Aren't you…" he muttered, then shook his head, causing Conan to blink in confusion. "Yes, I needed to speak with Mouri-san about something…I don't believe he's here, however." He turned his head back to the door. "I knocked a few times and I got no reply, so I was thinking of leaving and coming back before you walked up the stairs."

Conan raised an eyebrow. ~Occhan told me to be back before dinner….so he should still be there.~ "If that's the case, we can wait inside if you want." He chirped, spreading out his arms. "I live here with him, so it shouldn't be a problem."

"Is that so…?" He carefully said, narrowing his eyes as he looked at the boy before smiling. "Sorry for the trouble, boiya."

Conan walked up to the door and opened it, blinking as he noticed it was unlocked. The moment he walked inside, all of his thoughts shattered, focusing on one thing.

"W-WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" He shouted, taking a step back.

* * *

**YAY CLIFF HANGER! I swear my friend infected me with this...Since school is almost over for me, I should have the next one up quicker :V**


End file.
